Simple Mistakes
by ShiroHichi891
Summary: This could have all been avoided, but now everyone around him was suffering at his own hands. With his hollow now free, he runs rampant with his body to make Ichigo suffer and pay for imprisoning him for so long. Mild language and strong violence. IchiRuki CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN!
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hello all! This is my very first fanfic and I hope that it's not too bad. It's just a random idea that I got one day. It takes place kinda in-between the rescue and the decide arcs, kinda like a sort of filler in a way...yah. This first part is just a prologue of sorts and the main parts of the story will be coming the latter chapters which are much more interesting that this beginning chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I sadly don't own anything except my ideas**

**And on with the story!**

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

When Ichigo and the gang, including Chad, Uryu, Rukia, and all the other Shinigami, had rescued Orihime and they returned to Karakura Town where Aizen retreated back to Hueco Mundo after his Espada army was defeated. Since then, they have all been waiting for when the next attack will be. Ever aware of the dangers that lay before them

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"_Hollow! Hollow! Hollow!"_

His Soul Reaper badge sounded mere seconds before Rukia came bursting though the door of this bedroom, already dressed down in her Shinigami clothes.

"Come on, let's go Ichigo!"

"I know, I know. I'm on it."

Ichigo grabbed his badge sitting next to his clock; 12:13. "_Just perfect. Looks like another sleepless night."_ He thought as he slapped his badge to his chest, thus forcing his spiritual body from his human body, letting the latter fall on top of his bed in a lifeless heap. He then opened his window and both he and Rukia jumped out and started hopping on roof tops towards the rampaging hollow.

They heard the hollow before they saw it, shrieking as if its life depended on it. Ironically, it somewhat did.

The hollow looked like a gorilla in shape but with four arms and dark purple skin with spots randomly placed on it. Its mask was rather round with similar spots on it. It turned around as it sensed the oncoming Shinigami, momentarily distracted by the much more delicious prey than the small boy it had been chasing earlier. That moment was all they needed though as Ichigo grabbed his zanpakuto and unwrapped the bandages with a quick burst of spiritual pressure. He then proceeded to shunpo right in front of the unsuspecting hollow and, just as it noticed the Shinigami in front of it, sliced it skillfully in two.

He jumped back to where Rukia was waiting with a smirk on his face, "You know, I didn't need you to come along. I managed just fine on my own."

"Shut up!" Rukia retorted with a smack across the back of his head, "You never know when an arrancar may show up. You can't be too careful."

"Whatever."

Jumping back towards his house, Ichigo gazed up at the clouded sky, a little worried about the chances of rain before they returned. Thankfully, he didn't have to worry long because his open window soon came in sight. But, right before they jumped back in, Rukia's cell phone, or Soul Pager or whatever she calls it, started to beep, indicating another hollow in the area.

"Damn it." Ichigo cursed as he turned back around towards the location of the new hollow. And, just to make matters worse, the sky ripped open and ice cold rain dropped from the heavens.

"Seriously? Just great!" Ichigo yelled to no one in particular. They both then set off again to fight the newest hollow that showed up, getting soaked by the pelting rain in the process.

The entire night continued like this for what seemed like forever. The hollows just didn't stop coming. Every two seconds, Rukia's phone would go off right after they defeated another hollow. When, finally, the annoying beeping ended and they both returned back home.

When they jumped back into Ichigo's room, Rukia went into his bathroom and grabbed a towel to dry herself off with because she was completely soaked. When finished, she then walked back to Karin and Yuzu's room where she had been sleeping ever since coming back from Hueco Mundo, and fell back asleep.

Ichigo, on the other hand, didn't even bother to dry himself off before getting back into his body. He just got back in and flopped onto his welcoming bed, exhausted, and almost immediately fell asleep. But not before he managed to take a quick glance at the clock. It read 4:07. They had been up for nearly four hours just fighting and he was only going to get maybe two hours of sleep at most before he would have to get back up and get ready for school. After all, it was only a Thursday.

Never-the-less, he fell asleep in an instant. But what awaited him in the morning was going to be far worse than he could have ever thought.

**A/N: And... that's the first part. Please leave reviews and tell me if it sounds even slightly interesting at all. The next chapter will be much more interesting than this one and should be up very quickly since it's already written. Please remember that this is my first fanfic and don't flame please.**


	2. A Bad Start

**A/N: Here is the next part of the story that is going to be much more interesting than the boring prologue. Thanks to all those who are still reading, it is greatly appreciated *hugs*.**

**Disclaimer: I still own nothin'**

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Ichigo awoke to his blaring alarm telling his to get off his lazy ass and get ready for school. When he craned his eyes open though, he was covered in a cold sweat and felt _horrible._

It felt like his eyes were burning, head would split open, throat on fire, his stomach was being torn apart from the inside out, and he felt utterly weak and every move he made felt like he was pulling himself through syrup.

He cringed as his door was swung open and his father came bounding through screaming, "ICHHHIIIIIIGOOOOOO!" at the top of his lungs. He also, just like every other morning, or day, attacked Ichigo 'out of the kindness of his heart'.

When he kneed Ichigo in the stomach though, an attack that he didn't even expect to make contact, Ichigo got the wind knocked out of his and started into a bad coughing fit which succeeded in making Isshin worried. His son never got hit from one of his attacks anymore without instantly retaliating, which he wasn't doing.

As Ichigo calmed down and was able to breathe semi-normally again, he angrily grabbed onto his dad's legs and threw his out the (closed) window.

"When are you going to stop these stupid attacks already?" Ichigo shouted hoarsely from his broken window, which didn't do much to help Isshin's worries. But he didn't think too much about that as he lay there twitching on the ground with glass shards stuck in his body.

Ichigo then started to slowly get ready for school which took his much longer than usual because of his horrible sick and weak feelings. Once he had managed to get at least slightly decent looking, he slowly walked downstairs.

There, his sisters and Rukia greeted his with their normal happy attitudes but, shocked and worried looks appeared on their faces as they saw his appearance.

He didn't look good in the least bit. He had dark bags under his eyes, from both the sleepless night and from being sick, a slouched posture, a dull, pained look in his eyes, had a light glint of sweat on his skin, his breathing was hard and ragged and, overall, he was very pale.

"Ichigo, are you alright?" Yuzu asked with concern seeing her brother's appearance.

"Ya, I'll be fine." He replied with a raspy voice as he grabbed a piece of toast.

"Are you sure you should be going to school Ichigo?" This time it was Rukia who said this as she looked towards Ichigo with worry clearly shown in her eyes.

"I said I'm fine." He retorted with more venom in his words than he meant which cause Rukia to flinch back in surprise. "Sorry." He then hurried towards the front door and hastily put his shoes on before rushing out. Rukia, who quickly got her own stuff, ran after him.

He didn't get very far from the house, only about two blocks, so it didn't take too long for Rukia to catch up. But what had worried her even more was the fact that Ichigo was wobbling and staggering slightly as he walked.

"Ichigo, are you sure that you should be going to school? You look terrible."

"I'm fine. I've been through worse." He said with a few coughs afterwards.

"Well, you don't look it and you shouldn't be worrying about school when you feel like this. Go back home and rest." Rukia pleaded as she put a hand on his shoulder but he just kept walking.

"I told you I'll be fine…" Ichigo said as he turned around to face Rukia. But as he turned, his head started to spin and his knees buckled beneath his. He started to fall. Fortunately, Rukia was able to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Ichigo!" she screamed at him but he didn't respond to her besides a light groaning. He was breathing heavier and sweat now covered his entire body.

Panicking slightly, Rukia half-carried, half-dragged Ichigo back to the house. When she got there carrying the unconscious teen, she burst through the front door and yelled for help. Thankfully, Isshin, who miraculously didn't have a scratch on him, came rushing with Karin and Yuzu on his heels. They all gasped at the sight before them and Isshin promptly picked Ichigo up in his strong arms bridal style and carried his upstairs to his room. In there, he carefully placed Ichigo in his bed and checked his temperature with the back of his hand. It felt like it was probably around 100°.

Isshin went back downstairs to get some supplies for Ichigo where he was confronted with the worried faces of the three girls who assaulted him with questions.

"Is Ichigo going to be okay?" Yuzu asked with large eyes.

"Yeah, he's going to be okay. He's just overexerted himself and passed out. Don't worry about him! No son of mine would be brought down by a little cold like this so easy! He'll be up and about in no time!" their father rambled as he triumphantly held up a fist into the air.

_I hope so. This is so unlike him._ Rukia though as she got ready to leave for school again, even though she was very reluctant to do so. She still had an appearance that she had to keep up and people would get suspicious if she wasn't at school. When all three girls left, Isshin's face dropped, worry and concern evident on his face.

_I wish I could believe my own words but this looks more serious than I've let on. _Isshin thought solemnly as he walked back upstairs, supplies in hand to check on the sickly teen.

**A/N: I hope this caught your attention! I hope that none of them seemed OOC. Sorry that I left it on a bit of a cliff hanger but I just love the suspense! *Hichigo's laugh* More will be on the way soon! Please review and feel free to leave criticism as long as it's not flames. Thanks!**


	3. Horrid Premonition

**A/N: Finally, there's some plot development in this chapter. I know I'm getting these first chapters up really fast but that's just 'cause I finally got around to typing them all. The next chapters will take me longer to get up 'cause I do gotta worry about school and all that junk *rubs back of head and laughs nervously*.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything**

**On with the story!**

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"_Hehehehehe…"_

Laughter. That's all he could hear when he woke up in his sideways world. But it wasn't the normal happy kind of laughter that you hear when someone tells a funny joke or something like that. No, this laughter was dark and evil, the kind that sent shivers up your spine and made you want to go crawl and hide under a bed and pray that it would stop and go away.

Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted from the center of his chest as a strong foot pushed his into the side of the building below that he was laying on. The cackling just grew as he cried out in pain.

"_Ya look so pathetic, King, y' know." It'd be so easy to overthrow ya right now."_ A chilling voice spoke which caused Ichigo's closed eyes to snap open.

There stood his hollow, clad in all his pure white colored glory with a face splitting grin on. His hair was down to his waist and had the horned mask that Ichigo had when he fought Ulquiorra pulled over to the side of his head. Ichigo's blood ran cold at the sight of his inner monster that tormented his dreams, or nightmares, and made his life a living hell. Those glowing golden eyes of his surrounded by pitch black looked down at him and seemed to pierce his very soul.

"_Why do ya look so scared, King? Ya aren't afraid of me still, are ya?" _He asked sarcastically as he giggled and pushed down harder on the teen below. Ichigo tried to move out from under his oppressing foot but he felt so weak. All he managed to do was shift around slightly which caused the hollow's smile to widen even further, if possible. _What's going on? Why can't I do anything and why am I so weak all of the sudden? _He thought frantically.

"_Ya can't do anything against me in your condition. I'm much more powerful than you even when you're well, let alone when you're like this." _The hollow said while the orange-haired teen below struggled to breath. _"Oh, this is gonna be fun."_

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo managed to ask with as much malice and anger as he could muster which wasn't very much.

"_Why, the whole reason you're like this o' course." _He replied, _"Why you're sick. Didn't ya ever notice how wha' ever happened to your body outside never transferred over when you came into your inner world? Now, ask yourself this, why is it that you feel so weak and sick even tough you're in here?"_

The only rely Ichigo could give was a confused look so the hollow continued. _"Well, it's not just your body that's sick but really your soul. And, when your soul's sick, it's much worse than the normal illnesses you humans have. The symptoms are amplified and risks greater. It also gives me the edge I need. Like this, you're weak and your restraints on me waver and I'll be able to bend and break them very soon."_

Ichigo's eyes widened at this realization but the hollow kept going, _"But, I sadly can't break free of them just yet."_ He said with a fake, sad look on his face, _"Before I can do that, I'm gonna hafta weaken ya more and more 'til ya can't hold me back any longer. I'm gonna use your illness to do that; make you worse and worse till you cant take it anymore and you break from the strain." _He then lifted Ichigo up by the throat until he was at eye level with him with his face mear inches from his own, crushing the air out of him.

"_I'm gonna make you suffer and pay for imprisoning me for so long, and when I'm done with you, you'll wish ya were dead." _He said as he tightened his grip on Ichigo's throat, nearly crushing it to dust and making him cough and gasp for any air he could get.

"N-no…I wo-on't…l-let…yo-ou…" Ichigo chocked out. His vision was starting to flicker and he saw spots dance in front of his eyes. He heard the hollow laugh manically as the darkness surrounded him, sending him into the sweet bliss of unconsciousness as the hollow's laugher faded with him.

**A/N: Oh no, Ichigo! Lol just kidding. :3 Sorry for it being so short and ending the chapter right there but if I ended it anywhere else it would've flown weird. :/ Anyways, please review, it really does help me keep motivated. It's not that hard people! Just click on the little button below and type a few words. That's all I need! *sniffle* Thanks!**


	4. Worried Faces

**A/N: Woohoo! Next chapter's up! This one has more length and I'm kinda proud of it. XD I hope you like it and enjoy! :3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach and I never will *pouts***

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It had been a couple of hours since Ichigo had passed out and he had neither woken up nor gotten any better. Since being unconscious, he had started shivering violently and his fever had gone up slightly. Rukia, now back from school, hadn't left his side for even a minute.

There was a slight knock at the door before the bearded face of Isshin came through with a tray of food.

"How's he doing?" he asked questionably.

"Still no big difference." She sighed before continuing, "Isn't there anything we can do for him?" she pleaded as she looked towards Isshin with desperation in her eyes.

"All we can do is wait until he wakes up for now. But don't worry about him so much. He'll probably bounce back up anytime now!"

"Oh…Okay." She said as she looked back towards Ichigo's pained face, "I do hope he wakes up soon. I hate seeing him like this."

"I know, but you just have to have hope."

"Alright, thanks." She said as she took the food with a smile.

"Let me know when he wakes up if you could."

"Sure thing." Rukia said as she started eating.

Only about thirty minutes later, Ichigo made signs of waking. He slowly pried his eyes open with a groan as they adjusted to the light.

"Ichigo?" he heard off to his left. He turned is head to see Rukia sitting beside his bed in his desk's chair looking ecstatic at him waking up. "How are you? How do you feel?"

"I've been better, but it's nothing I can't handle." He lied so he didn't worry her, the conversation with his hollow still bouncing through his head.

"That's good," she said, relieved, "Do you want anything? You've been out for a couple hours now."

"Really? Damn…I guess I could use a glass of water."

"Okay! I'll be right back." She said as she ran downstairs to get it and to also inform Isshin that Ichigo was awake.

Ichigo watched her leave before his face sunk again into one of confusion and slight irritation. Was what his hollow said true? Was he going to free himself? And what did he mean by make him worse?

At that thought, suddenly, Ichigo was hit with a huge wave of nausea that had him cringing and grabbing onto his spasming stomach. It then got worse and he flung himself out of bed and staggered to the bathroom where he proceeded to empty his stomach's contents into the porcelain bowl below. Even when his stomach was emptied, it kept contracting and spasming as he vomited up putrid bile along with it.

Once it all calmed down, he slumped against the toilet and slid down onto the floor in a very ungraceful manner, completely drained of all energy and having a rather difficult time breathing.

Downstairs, Rukia, still getting Ichigo's water, and Isshin heard Ichigo's 'commotion' and rushed upstairs. They came in on the sight of him lying on the floor, wheezing and looking deathly pale. They ran to his side the moment they saw him and tried to help him sit up.

"Ichigo! Are you alright?" Rukia nearly screamed at him, but the only response she got was weak whimpering that only escalated her concern and worry.

"Help me get him back into bed, Rukia." Isshin calmly spoke to her, trying not to make her panic any more. They both gently lifted the sweaty, limp body back to bed where they put him under the covers and took his temperature. It was rising again and was probably around 102° or 103° now.

"Rukia, watch Ichigo while I go downstairs and get some medicine for him." He said. Rukia just nodded as she kept her eyes glued on Ichigo's shaking form.

After a couple of minutes, he returned with his supplies consisting of a thermometer, a wet cloth, the glass of water Rukia had already prepared, and the medicine in both pill and shot form.

"Here Ichigo, I need you to take this. It'll help with the nausea and this shot will reduce your fever really quick." Isshin explained as he handed him the water. Ichigo tried to grab the glass but all he managed was to brush his fingers against it before his arm fell back down by his side. They both had to help prop him up before they gently placed the pills in his mouth and poured some water in it too.

Once he managed to swallow the pills, he went into a very violent coughing fit that sounded like he was going to rip a lung out. It last or over a minute before it calmed, leaving Ichigo to crumble back down, wheezing even worse.

Isshin quickly and skillfully administered the shot to Ichigo before gently laying the cool, wet cloth atop his burning forehead, earning a somewhat relieved sign to escape his lips at the touch. Then, he took this temperature with a forehead scanner and found that it was in fact 102°.

"Alright, that's all I can do for now. It's best if we just let him rest for now." He said as he gestured towards the already sleeping form of Ichigo. "We won't help if all we do is worry about him." Then he gave one of his signature stupid grins.

"Thanks. Um…would it be alright if I stayed in here for tonight to keep an eye on him?" Rukia asked with hope which she didn't carry in vain.

"Of course you can my wonderful third daughter! Don't you worry about it for one minute! I'll even get a bed ready for you in here." He said with glee as he shot out of the room. Once back, he had a futon, blanket, and a pillow that he quickly laid out on the floor for her.

Rukia just watched with here fake, innocent smile that twitched every now and then at the sight of the overly happy father. "Thanks," she said when he finished, "It means a lot."

"Don't you worry your gorgeous little head about it! I'm happy as long as you are my darling!" he said with sparkles in his eyes, "Now, I'm going to go back downstairs to get some things in order. Keep an eye on Ichigo and tell me if anything happens, okay?"

"Okay." She said as she, again, went back to watching Ichigo with intensity. _'Oh Ichigo, please get better soon. I can't stand to see you like this when you're normally so strong'._ She though as she gently stroked his cheek. But, as she watched his sleeping face, she couldn't help but feel a sense of dread wash over her.

'_Why does everything bad always seem to happen to you, Ichigo? You don't deserve any of this. And,' _she thought as silent tears streamed down her face, '_It's all my fault. I'm the one who put you in this situation in the first place.' _She chuckled lightly, '_I also wouldn't be surprised if you blamed and hated me for everything I've put you through. I myself don't deserve to have such a great and caring person as my ally and friend.'_ Her thoughts continued like this for some time before she too fell asleep in the chair she was sitting in.

Later, Isshin came back in the room to check on the two of them to find them both soundly asleep. He slowly and carefully lifted Rukia up and, without waking her, placed her in the small bed on the floor. "Ichigo." He heard her whisper, almost too quietly to hear, which brought a slight smile on his lips.

He looked over towards Ichigo and his smile quickly left his face and was replaced with concern at the sight of his son. He was still breathing heavily and looked far worse for wear. His eyes were darting around underneath the lids as if he was having some sort of nightmare with his face contorted in a scared expression.

He checked his temperature again but found that it hadn't gone down at all even though it had been well over an hour since giving him the shot. This confused him, _'That shot should have brought his fever down by now, but why hasn't it yet?' _ He scratched his chin thoughtfully, _'This is definitely strange. I can't give him anymore medicine yet so I guess all I can do is hope for the best.'_

Silently, he left the room and awaited whatever the morning held.

**A/N: Aaaannnd...it's done! Hooray! I hope you liked it and please review. If you don't I'll get severely depressed, crawl in a corner, grow mushrooms, and die from mushroom poisoning. So, please save the poor author by reviewing! Please and thank you! :3**


	5. Bad Dreams

**A/N: Hello there! Thanks to all those who reviewed and favorited and alerted this story! I love you all! *squeeze* Okay, so I've decided to changed how the dialect looks from previous chapters just to make it flow smoother and make more sense and I'm really sorry if I annoy anyone by doing this. Please don't hurt me!**

Text key:

"Blah blah blah" – regular speaking

'_Blah blah blah'_ – thinking

"**Blah blah blah"** – hollow speaking out loud

_**'Blah blah blah' **_**– **hollow speaking in head

_(Blah blah blah) __– _occasional, rare author's note

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Yada, yada, yada.**

**Now get some popcorn, sit back and watch (read) the show! *curtains draw back***

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The air was filled with the mouth watering smells of freshly made waffles, crisp, sizzling bacon, and golden hash browns. Everything needed for an ideal Saturday morning. These smells mixed together and created a wonderful aroma that, if anyone were to walk by, would inhale deeply and wish they were the ones on the inside eating all of that delicious food. But, these tantalizing smells did little to cover up the depressing atmosphere of the family inside. They, all though basically spoiled by all the delicacies around them, were thinking about the bed-ridden teen upstairs. About what was wrong with him and what they might be able to do to help him.

Yuzu, making the breakfast for everyone, was barely even paying any attention to what she was doing, burning a couple waffles in the process. She couldn't take her mind off of her brother who was going through such a hard time. Karin was watching T.V. on the couch, but, just like her twin, wasn't listening to it or anything. Isshin was everywhere, goofy grin in place, trying his best to distract and cheer his daughters up, but underneath his façade, he too was in great worry for his son. Rukia now, she hadn't even left Ichigo's room, still watching him like a hawk, waiting for him to wake up, yet again.

All house occupants were slightly shaken up by the events of last night. They all heard when Ichigo threw up and what occurred there after. It worried them greatly. Whenever Ichigo did get sick, which in itself was an occurrence that rarely happened, he was able to shake it off or toughen through it. To see him in this state was heart wrenching and made them want to do anything they possibly could to help. It also made them wonder what kind of illness could have brought down the tough and strong Ichigo to this state.

"Hey, dad," Yuzu asked from the stove, "Can you bring some food up to Rukia for me? I don't think she's going to come down for breakfast."

"Sure thing my little angel!" He said as he grabbed the food and basically flew up the stairs to Ichigo's room. He entered the room where he found Rukia by Ichigo's bed, drawing something resembling a bunny like-creature in her sketch book to try and distract herself and keep busy.

"Hello there Rukia! Here's some breakfast that Yuzu make for you!" He yelled as she jumped from her chair and 'shushed' him. Then she glanced back at Ichigo to indicate that he was still sleeping. "Oh. Sorry."

"It's fine. Just keep it down if you could. After last night, he needs to get all the sleep he can get. Oh, thank Yuzu for me for the food."

"Will do. So, has he shown any odd or unusual signs?" He asked with a rare show of seriousness.

"Not really, just breathing heavy. But, his eyes have been darting around a lot while he sleeps. Probably just a dream."

Isshin took his temperature which was still up pretty high, even though he already gave him more medicine for it earlier this morning, before either of them had woken up. "This is rather strange that his fever hasn't gone down yet. It should have by now."

"Well what can you do for him? Is there something else you can do?"

"I can but I'll need to get some supplies from the main hospital to do that. If I leave now I can be back in less than an hour."

"Really? That would be great. Thanks for everything you're doing for him."

"Don't thank me. Why wouldn't I do all this for my own son?" he chuckled as he headed for the door, "I'm going to take Karin and Yuzu with me to get them out of the house and away from everything."

"Okay."

When she turned back towards Ichigo though, before Isshin was all the way out the door, she noticed him starting to move around and groan. His face was contorted in a look of distress and fear.

"Ichigo? Ichigo, what's wrong? Wake up!" she yelled as his groans started to increase in volume becoming screams. His hands darted up and grabbed his head as if to stop it from splitting open. By now, Rukia was shaking him, trying to wake him up to attempt to stop this sudden and erratic behavior, but it didn't do any good. He just kept thrashing around. Isshin was now beside him holding him down so he didn't hurt himself, which wasn't very hard because of how weak Ichigo was.

"What's going on? Why is he acting like this?" Rukia demanded but Isshin didn't have an answer for her, for he didn't know himself.

"Karin! Yuzu!" he finally yelled after a few more moments of Ichigo struggling, showing no sign of stopping any time soon. In no time the two girls were in the room, frightened by what was going on and the sight before them. "I need you two to go and get a shot of sedation fluid an a sterilizing swab. Ichigo's going to hurt himself if he continues like this. Hurry!" and said girls rushed downstairs to get the medicine in a panic.

"NO! STOP IT! PLEASE!" Ichigo cried as loud as he could, thrashing even more violently. Rukia and Isshin looked at him and then at each other with questioning looks. Soon, the twins returned with the medicine along with the sterilizing swab asked for and quickly handed it to their father. He took it and squirted a little out before trying to hold one of Ichigo's arms down, but he was thrashing too much.

"I need you guys to hold him down! I can't get him still long enough!" he ordered as the three girls then held him down as best as they could. Isshin moved quick as he sterilized the shot area with the swab and jabbed the needle into his flesh, injecting the fluid inside. A couple seconds after being administered, Ichigo's movements started to become sluggish and more calm. Eventually, in less than a minute, all of his movements stopped all together, leaving all those around him panting.

"Daddy, what's wrong with Ichi-nii?" Yuzu asked after catching her breathe, her voice trembling after being shaken by the recent events.

Isshin shook his head before saying, "I really don't know, honey. It's not making any sense to me right now. I don't understand what's gong on with him or why he's acting this way right now, but I'm going to do the best I possibly can to find out."

"I've never heard him scream like that before." Karin stated, a scared look in her eyes.

"I know, honey, I know." He signed and scratched the back of his head, "Come on. Let's let him rest again. He needs it." he then ushered them all out of the room, except for Rukia who shrunk down in the chair as soon as they left, a hand covering her mouth and tears welling up in her eyes. _'Why you, Ichigo? Why? Why can't I do anything to help you even though you've done so much for me?'_

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It was dark. He could barley see two feet in front of him. Yet still, he weakly wondered around, looking for something, anything in this dark world, not knowing what he would find. He heard a small splashing noise and felt something wet on his feet and looked down to see a dark puddle that was as pitch black as the area around him except with a shimmer of light on it. His image shown back at him, strangely, and looked odd and distorted. The water rippled as he shifted his feet, disturbing his image, but when it cleared back up again, his stark-white counter part replaced it, staring back with a chilling, evil smile on his face. He flinched back in surprise and tried to step back but found that he couldn't move his feet. It was like they were glued in place.

"**Uh, uh, uh, King,"** he said as he waged his finger, **"We don't want ya running off and runin' the surprise now, do we?"**

"What do you want?" Ichigo asked with a hint of fear in him voice that he couldn't hide.

"**Well now, if I told ya then there wouldn't be any fun in that."**He then cackled dangerously as Ichigo found himself falling forwards, faster and faster towards the black water below. He splashed through the surface and suck like a rock. He kicked and thrashed through the water but wasn't moving fast enough. He wasn't going to make it to the surface in time. His lungs were fit to burst and he finally let it out…only to find that he could breathe. He slowly swam to the surface, but once he got there, he came to a kind of glass-like structure blocking him from getting out of the water. He pounded and struck against it with all he could muster but it wouldn't budge.

"**_Hehehehehehe!"_** he heard _his_ voice from beyond the glass and looked around until his gaze fell upon his inner hollow, in _his_ body. The mask was forming over his face with his maniacal grin in place, **"Just sit back an' watch the show, alright? I promise that you'll never look away."** He said as his smile grew. He burst into laughter and started walking off, right towards the giant, tanned body of Chad.

"No! Run Chad! Get away from him!" Ichigo screamed but his voice couldn't carry through the glass, for only the monster before him, impersonating as him, could hear him. Said monster looked over his shoulder and gave one more grin before turning back around, and impaling the unsuspecting giant through the stomach with his bare hand. A strangled gasp came from Chad as the hand entered his body and looked at the person responsible for this in the face. His eyes widened as he saw 'Ichigo' and spat up blood.

"Why?" was all he managed to say before the hollow clenched his hand around whatever he could get a hold of and ripped his hand out along with it, effectively pulling out many of his internal organs in a bloody mass. Chad fell backwards and onto the floor where he lay; lifeless with his innards spread around him. Like a canvass with splattered paint.

The hollow turned around and spotted his next target; Uryu. Walking up towards him, the young Quincy looked at him with suspicion as he edged closer. When he was close enough, he gasped and staggered backwards, fear plain in his eyes. He made for his bow, but it was too late. The hollow was already behind him, slowly tearing his arms off. He screamed in agonizing pain as they were each in turn torn off, leaving bloody stumps behind pouring out blood. He fell to his knees from the pain, right before the hollow took his sword and, once again, stabbed him in the stomach. Uryu's eyes widened and he too fell, moving no more.

"No! Why are you doing this? It's me you're out for, not them!" Ichigo screamed at the monster as he slowly made his way to his next victim. Renji came into view. The hollow killed him as well by stabbing him in the heart and twisting his sword. Renji tried to breathe but he couldn't. He coughed up a good amount of blood and slumped forward on the sword impaling him. The hollow slid off his body and kicked it aside before looking back towards the trapped Ichigo and laughed.

"**Stop complaining, King. We're not even to the best part yet! An' ****I'm doing this because I promised to make you suffer and pay an' ****that's exactly what I'm doing. Now sit back an' ****watch." **He cackled as Orihime started to approach from behind.

"I-Ichigo?" she stammered as she held up her shaking hand. The hollow turned towards her with a gin showing all of his teeth, eyes blazing with pleasure. She took a shaky breathe as she saw him and her hands shot up to her hairpins. Once they barely grazed them, they fell back down to her sides and her body fell forwards. Her head rolled off to the side, eyes wide and tear stricken.

He laughed horrifically and sent shivers up Ichigo's spine. His on eyes were wide, pleading this monster to stop his slaughter. He still screamed for it all to end but his voice was hoarse from all of it, leaving only a strangled cry in its place. Then, his heart seemed to stop as he saw who the hollow was approaching next. Rukia. "No, no, no, no, NO! Please, not her!" he begged but the impersonator didn't stop, only picked up the pace.

He reached her and she just stood there, unmoving. He tilted her chin up in his hand and looked her in the eyes. She was completely and utterly _terrified_. Her breaths came in small, uneven gasps and she was trembling all over. She couldn't move or get away from the creature her friend had become, "Rukia! Run! That's not me! Get away!" he pleaded in vain. She couldn't hear a word he was saying, blocked out by the glass keeping him separated from her.

Her eyes widened even further as the hollow's hand rested on her chest, right where her heart lay. Slowly, painstakingly slowly, his fingers dug into her skin, going deeper and deeper every passing second until it came into contact with the bloody, quickly beating mass underneath. His fingers closed around it and squeezed, earning a shrill cry to come from Rukia. By now, tears were streaming down not only her face, but welling up in Ichigo's as well _(not sure how since he's underwater but just go with it)_, horrified at what his friend was going through and not being able to do anything about it. Wait. Was she just a friend or more than that?

The monster before him chuckled lightly before he squeezed down harder and _pulled_, effectively ripping out her still beating heart. "NO! STOP IT! PLEASE!" Ichigo screamed with all his might as he begged for this horror show to end. The hollow just looked at the lifeless form before him and then back to the bloody mess in his hands, smile growing. He licked his lips as he starred down at it and then licked it with a long, slimy tongue. He shoved it into his mouth and swallowed the heart whole.

Ichigo starred on in shock and fear as he did so, trying to tear his eyes from the scene but finding himself unable to do so. He was forced to watch. Forced to watch all of his friends be massacred by his _own_ hands. He watched as he killed them all, unable to do anything about it.

His inner _monster_ started walking again, but towards him. He started to panic as he approached but didn't have anywhere to run to. He was trapped. Just like a wild animal.

His bloodied hand reached out and through the glass to grab his throat. His finger colder than ice and felt like it was burning his skin. He lifted Ichigo up from the water, barrier gone, and began to crush the life out of him.

"**Look around you! This is all the destruction _you'll _cause!"** he chuckled and licked his lips, some blood still left on them, **"And, no matter how hard you try, _you can't escape._"** He said this last part with hatred and joy in his voice, an odd combination really and it showed.

The world around them started to distort and twist in a weird way, making everything look strange. A variety of colors started to appear randomly in places and twisted around with the surroundings. The hollow looked around with confusion and relaxed his grip slightly before anger over took his features and his grip tightened once more, **"You may be able to get away from me for a little while, but don't think you'll get away for long. Remember, I'm only beneath the surface and I _will _make your life a _living hell_!"**

That was the last thing Ichigo heard before his vision went black, hearing faded, and consciousness slipped.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

**A/N: I know that it looks like I kinda stole the whole underwater thing from the original series but in my defense, I thought of it before they did in the story plot when making this, so HAH! I hope you liked it! I know that I really enjoyed writing it, especially the 'dream' part. But, how do you think I did? Was it good, bad, okay, horrible, tear jerking? Please tell me in a review (no flames please) and it will make me so happy that I'll burst into tears and write non-stop! Thanks for reading! :3**


	6. Waiting For Outcomes

**A/N: …huh…I don't really have much to say right now so I'll just say that this is more of a filler chapter than anything else. It's still long-ish but more good stuff will be coming the next one…yeah.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach. Not that hard to figure out.**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

His body felt numb, besides the searing pain engulfing him. It hut to move anything when he tried and when he did, it just made the pain worse. He was having trouble breathing, as if a weight was on his chest. His head hurt horribly, the most too, and when he _tried_ to open his eyes, he was met with a blinding light that sent needles into his skull. He let a small gasp escape his lips and after a couple minutes, he tried again, slower this time. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting of the room, to him it was as bright as the sun, but they eventually did so. He was in his room, under two thick covers and with Rukia lying beside him, head resting on the side of his bed.

Ichigo was confused. Everything was fuzzy and when he tried to concentrate on remembering what was happening around him, his head hurt more again. He lifted a hand to it but found that even that hurt and was challenging.

There was moaning coming from Rukia before she raised her head and rubbed her eyes, vision blurry. Once it had come into focus, her eyes rested on Ichigo, now conscious, and was instantly awake.

"Ichigo!" but was quieter when she saw him wince from her voice, which really wasn't that loud. "How do you feel?" she said with a whisper of a voice.

Groaning before he replied, he said, "Not too good." And instantly shut up as he heard his own voice. It was raspy and hoarse, not sounding like his own; worn and overused like after going to a concert and screaming way too much.

Rukia fidgeted a bit before standing up, "I'm going to go and tell your dad you're awake. I promise I'll be right back." She said as she stood up and walked out the door. She looked back with a soft smile before silently closing the door behind her.

Ichigo just starred up at the ceiling as everything came back to him. He was sick. Very sick. And he had a sickening feeling that he was going to get worse, his hollow promised him that.

Talking outside his door caught his attention but he wasn't able to make out what they were saying. The owners of the voices soon entered to revile Rukia with Isshin who looked at his son with some relief in seeing him awake.

"Hey, so, how do you feel?" he asked in a quiet voice. He didn't need an answer though because Ichigo's eyes told it all. He was suffering. In pain, hurt, and…scared. That emotion was a little shocking, but who could blame him? Isshin didn't know what was going on yet and his son certainly didn't, to a degree.

Ichigo was having trouble focusing on his father's image and this was taken notice of for his dad came over and talked to him in a calm, hushed voice, "You're going to be okay, Ichigo. We'll find what's wrong and fix it. It may just be a bad virus for all we know." He smiled reassuringly as he proceeded to check his vitals.

"How long have I been out?"

"Ichigo," he replied, temporarily ceasing whatever he was doing, "You've been unconscious for three days. You've spiked a high fever the whole time and we hadn't been able to wake you." Ichigo's face grew depressed at hearing this.

"Oh…I'm sorry."

"What the hell are you sorry for?" Rukia demanded but put a hand over her mouth as soon as the words left it. Ichigo winced again and groaned as the 'needles' turned into 'daggers'. She mouthed a silent apology before turning away slightly, facing the wall.

"I think," Isshin continued for her, "That what Rukia was trying to say was that it's not your fault and that you have no reason to feel sorry. If anything, we should be the ones apologizing for not getting you enough help."

"No, you shouldn't." he replied and let out a weak sigh.

"Um…do you want any food?" Rukia inquired, "You must be hungry."

"I'm not actually. But I should probably try to eat something though, huh."

"Yeah, that would help." She said, "What do you want to eat?"

"Surprise me."

"Alright. I'll ask Yuzu to make you something." Rukia said as she left the room to go find Yuzu.

Isshin fumbled with is instruments for a couple minutes, "Can you describe what you feel for me? It'll help me get a better picture of what's going on."

"Well, my whole body aches, I feel really weak, my heads pounding, and I'm starting to have a dull pain in my chest." He described with a slightly sarcastic voice.

"Your chest hurts? Where exactly?"

"In the center, mainly."

"Is it okay if I feel to see how sensitive it is?"

"Sure."

He gently touched Ichigo's chest and found that he cringed whenever he pressed down in the center of his chest, right where he indicated the pain was specifically. From there, it radiated out from that spot. "That's concerning. Keep me informed on it if it gets worse or things like that."

"Yeah, okay."

There was a light knock at the door and Yuzu's sweet voice was heard from the other side. "Come on in sweetie. Just keep your voice down." She entered in an apron and a small try containing a bowl of, humorous, chicken noodle soup. Rukia was in tow behind her.

"Hey Ichi-nii! I got your food. I hope it's okay."

"Thanks Yuzu." His dad helped him sit up and Yuzu set the food in his lap. He ate it slowly but it was enjoyable; very warm and easy to swallow but it burned as it swam down his throat. The food felt good and comforting in his empty stomach and gave off a pleasant feeling. "It's really good," he stated after eating a couple bites, "Thanks."

"It's no problem! I'm glad you like it." she said as she beamed with happiness at the compliment, "Tell me if you need anything else to eat. I'll be happy to make it for you!"

"Alright, I'll be sure to do that." He promised as she walked back downstairs with a small bounce in her step because it looked as if her big brother was doing better.

His dad and Rukia talked with him for a little more as he ate; only being able to finish less than half of it, even though they pushed him to eat more. It was a Monday in the afternoon. Around 4:30 apparently, and Rukia had, reluctantly, attended school today, urged to by his dad. She told him how all his friends and classmates had asked about him, clearly worried too. They talked about these things for a while as Ichigo just listened, mind still somewhat foggy. It was really quite nice to just listen to them with Rukia drawing diagrams on her sketch book occasionally to help 'give him a better picture' and his dad being overdramatic as usual. All of it made a smile grace his features.

As he lay there, a sickening feeling encased him originating from his stomach and chest. The horrible, despicable sensation a person gets right before they throw up settling in his gut. His chest ached even more, like when you push on a fresh bruise _really_ hard. Cringing, he moaned as he rolled onto his side and his body scrunched up from the pain.

"Oh no, not again!" Rukia paled from beside Ichigo she watched him contort on the bed, eyes shut, trying to persuade these unwelcome sensations to leave.

In his mind, a cold voice echoed barley audible sounds of laughter that he wasn't paying attention to, but was aware of none the less. In one more convulsion, he spilled his meal and other liquids residing in his stomach over the side of his bed, and…into a bucket his dad had though ahead of to prepare just in case. He didn't just throw up vomit, but blood as well coming up afterwards in thick globs. Definably _not_ a good sign. All the while, Rukia rubbed his back, not knowing what else to do.

Once he had nothing left to give, he slumped over the side of his bed and shook violently all over; eyes dilated and unfocused, looking to the floor.

"Rukia, go get him some more blankets. Hopefully that'll get him warmed up at least." She went into the hallway closet in hast and quickly returned. She and Isshin draped Ichigo with the blankets, trying to stop his shivering. "This isn't good. We need to get some fluids in you, Ichigo. You've lost too much as it is."

Ichigo tried to form the words for a response, but it all came out as a strained, garbled mess. They both tried to get some forms of liquid into him but all they managed to do was make him cough it back up, along with more blood. "I need to get an IV in him now. Keep an eye on him and I'll be right back."

Running downstairs, he gathered his supplies including two bags of sodium chloride (fluid used to help re-hydrate) and a dose of morphine (high powered pain medicine). Supplies in hand, he rushed back up the stairs to the suffering youth. In the room, Ichigo was breathing with difficulty and had broken out in a cold sweat, drenching his sheets, and was shivering even worse than before. He was also gripping at his chest with his shirt clenched in his fist. They got the IV in him without any problems and just waited for something to happen. Waited for an outcome that would show a sign.

They soon got one for his shivering started decreasing, albeit slowly, but decreasing none the less. Breathing became easier and his hand slowly relaxed its grip on the crinkled shirt. Panting, eyes still closed, he just laid there.

Isshin ran a hand through his hair, exhaling. They all just sat there for a while, no one saying anything. An uneasy tension settling in the air. The only sounds were of Ichigo's heavy breathing; slow and strained. Isshin turned around and he saw, from the corner of his eye, Karin and Yuzu standing in the doorway, having come up hearing everything. He walked over to them.

"Will he be okay?" Karin questioned for both of them. His shoulders sagged slightly before he just motioned them in to see their brother. They stood beside his bed, looking down on him. He cracked open his eyes and his gaze fell upon two sister shaped blobs beside him and gave them a weak smile. He would always give them comfort, even when like this.

"Ichi-nii, please get better soon. I know you can pull through this." His brown haired sister said. He managed to nod his head ever so lightly to respond. She returned the gesture with a forced smile, as did Karin, and both walked back out.

Turning back towards his son, Isshin made sure he was as comfortable as he possibly could be. He even brought in a small T.V. for him. Since he was deprived of essential nutrients and fluids for being out for over three days and hadn't really eating anything or been able to keep it down, he got a bag of nutrient enriched fluids and hooked it up to him. Hopefully, that would help any new problems pertaining to it from occurring.

Ichigo watched the small T.V., barley comprehending, but glad for the distraction. He didn't know how long he had been watching it for, maybe a couple minutes of a couple hours. He wasn't sure. He _was_ aware of the numb sensation closing around his being, leaving everything with a light tingling feeling. That would be the morphine kicking in.

He found his eyelids starting to fall and, unable to keep them open any longer, let them. Rukia took notice and left the room without making a sound, thinking he was asleep. She went downstairs to just let him be for a bit and ate dinner with the stressed family for a change.

Before Ichigo succumbed to the persuasiveness that sleep offered, he had a pinching feeling in the back of his head. A vile, distorted voice echoed through it, quiet but evil. **_'I hope you enjoyed this little appetizer, King, 'cause this is only just the beginin'. Next, you're gonna feel pain like you've never felt before, an' I'm gonna love every _****minute ****_of it!'_**

That voice tore his thoughts from everything else, leaving him in a distressed state at those words. Fearing what he might have in mind. Scared for not only himself, but those around him; for what was to come. Unable to do anything about it.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: Sorry if this one was a little more boring than the others but it'll help for the other chapters later on. Still not much to say, but if it interests you, these things that Ichigo's going through like the stomach stuff and chest pain are all actually things that I went through myself about a year ago and just as bad (like emergency room bad), hence where the inspiration came from. XD Please review and I will love you forever! XD Thanks for reading! :3**


	7. Restless Nights

**A/N: Hooray! I'm done with chapter a little early 'cause my teacher didn't make us do anything in one of my classes! Hazzah! XD It's **_**way **_**longer than I thought that it would be but I'm just glad that I'm even able to write this much. This one has a lot more stuff going on in it unlike the last filler chapter that was way boring, sorry, and will help explain some things, hopefully, maybe, idk. Just go on and read to your little heart's content! Let it bloom and blossom from the awesomeness and explode from the intensity of a thousand burning suns filled with fanfictional amazingness! Sorry, I'm rambling a lot today :3**

**Disclaimer: Me, sadly, no own bleach… :(**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

The night was silent and calm, nothing disturbing it as the people of the fair city within slept without worry. There is one house in particular, one that was rather normal looking with the usual small yard, fence and two stories, except for the large sign above the door indicated that the house also functioned as a local clinic. Inside, all slept rather peacefully, considering what had so recently happened to one of their own member. Each was in their own room, in their respective beds, sleeping off the day's weariness to have the strength to embrace the mornings' challenges, whatever they may be. Some sleeping to relieve themselves of tiredness from recent activities and others sleeping to make sure that they would be rested enough for the ones around them.

One member of this household was also having a restful sleep, without any interruptions from outside _or_ inside forces. He was finally able to get some much needed rest and recover from what his 'condition', for lack of a better word, dealt him the day before. His sleep was empty, dreamless, but he could care less. In fact, he actually welcomed it for it gave him more peace of mind. That was, until _that_ reared its ugly head in again.

His eyes shot open as his head was filled to the brim with a bone-chilling laughter, forcing him awake and making his head feel like it was going to explode. Clutching his head and grinding his teeth, he tried to block out the voice but it was inescapable; always there and just getting louder by the second. Abruptly... it stopped.

Confused, he sat in his bed, panting slightly. For a minute or two, he thought that it was gone for a while and that he might be able to go back to sleep. Then, one single word reverberated through his skull that caused him to shudder and his eyes grow wider.

'**_Ready?'_**

On cue, pain engulfed him as he found his lungs scorching with an intensity like burning fire that was like nothing else he ever experienced before. He would have preferred getting stabbed in the chest multiple times compared to this. This was unbearable. He tried to breathe, to take in much needed oxygen, but found that even when he partially pushed past the pain enough, his lungs wouldn't respond. He also tried to scream but no air, none what so ever, could pass through his throat.

He recalled in a haze that Rukia was sleeping in his room beside him, keeping an eye on him. He rolled onto his side and tried to reach out for her, his arm shaking. He wasn't close enough to get her attention though so he tried to scoot closer, but fell painfully from his bed, tearing the IV out of his arm and landing with a loud 'thump'.

This noise, thankfully, woke Rukia up from her slumber for she was immediately up and looking at the form before her with eyes as wide as beach balls.

"Ichigo!" she screamed but got no response from him, only him trying to force words out but failing. His eyes were pleading, pain filled, and scared, something she had _never_ seen there before, and were slowly starting to drop from lack of oxygen. She started to panic.

She heard the sound of rushing foot steps pounding against the floor, coming towards Ichigo's room. The door was thrown open and Karin and Yuzu stood there, wondering what Rukia was screaming about. They didn't have to wonder long because they soon laid eyes upon their brother, mouth open in a silent scream from the pain they probably couldn't even imagine he was in.

"Get your dad!" Rukia ordered with panic drenching her words, "Hurry!"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

He was surrounded by beautiful women and all were dressed in nurses outfits covering very little of their curving bodies. They were 'bouncing' around checking on the faceless patients, doing pointless tasks. He was enjoying the site of it all, trying to take in all the luscious forms around him, somewhat overwhelmed. Like he cared!

"Dr. Kurosaki!" a blonde nurse came up to him, carrying a chart close to her overflowing chest, "I need you to see a patient of mine real quick."

"Why, of course!" Isshin replied, sticking one of his ridiculous poses. The nurse only giggled at his antics and started to lead him off down the hallway.

"Wait! I need the Dr. in this room!" cried another nurse with black hair running towards them.

"No! I need him! Besides, I asked him first!" the blonde said, angered.

"So? My patient needs more attention than yours!" returned the black haired one.

"Well too bad!" the blonde said and started to pull on Isshin's arm towards the room of her non-existent patient. The raven also started pulling on his other arm.

"Ladies, please! There's enough of me to go around!" Isshin chuckled, not at all fazed by his situation. "Whoa!" he said when the raven lost her grip on his am and caused both her and the blonde to fall on Isshin, somehow both on top of him.

"Oh! We're so sorry Dr. Kurosaki!" Both said in unison and unaware that they were pressing their elbows and…other 'appendages' in him.

"Please, don't worry about it! I know I'm irresistible." He said while placing a hand on his chin and eyes sparkling.

"Yes, you are Dr. Kurosaki!" Both said, giving him happy smiles.

"Call me, Daddy." He said in a seductive voice.

"Okay, Daddy." They said as they edged closer to him, his eyes slowly closing and pursing his lips, looking disturbingly similar to a puffer fish. He was ready for impact when, _'Slap!'_ He sat their wide eyed as the two women on top of him gave him innocent looks.

"What's wrong?" the blonde asked.

"Yeah, what's wrong, Dad!" the raven said as she slapped Isshin again, emphasizing the last part as she did so. The nurses each took turns in slapping Isshin senseless, saying 'Dad' each time, smiling the whole time as if nothing was happening.

"DAD!" they screamed one last time right in his face, waking him from his not-so-peaceful dream.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

He woke up in the conscious world with is daughters hovering above him, screaming and slapping him across the face to get him to wake up. He flung himself out from under the covers, only in his boxers.

"What is it?" he asked his frazzled daughters, "What's wrong?"

Yuzu couldn't get words out besides her crying and stuttering, so Karin spoke for the both of them, but she was also on the brink of tears. "I-it's Ichigo! I don't know what's wrong b-but he's…he's…I don't know! But Rukia said you need to come and fast!" they both pulled on his arms dragging him down the hallway. He barely managed to grab a robe before leaving.

Arriving in the room, he came in on the sight on Ichigo on the floor, still slightly tangled in his sheets, _trying_ to gasp for breath. Rukia was beside him and was, quite frankly, freaking out. He dropped down by his side and turned him onto his back, face up.

He wasn't breathing.

Isshin _needed_ to get him downstairs to get an oxygen mask on him to get him breathing again and to also find out what the _hell_ was going on! He picked Ichigo up, his body limp and unresponsive to the touch, and carried him downstairs to the hospital part of the house. He quickly put him in one of the many beds and threw an oxygen mask on him, sending him much needed air. He didn't respond to it. He just started turning a light bluish color in the face, chest not moving at all.

By now, Karin and Yuzu, being well adapted to dealing with patients on a regular basis, had already hooked up a heart monitor to their brother, showing his beating heart. A bad sign was when the monitor showed how his heart rate was slowing down at an alarming rate.

Taking the initiative, Isshin grabbed some tubes leading to a respirator and started feeding it down through Ichigo's nose and into his trachea (1). Ichigo, not being able to make any noise, twitched as the tube slithered down, gagging him. Once Isshin got the tube to enter his lungs, he started feeding it oxygen. This time, it worked…kind of.

Ichigo's heart rate returned to normal showing that he was able to semi-breathe again, but then started to speed up too quickly. Ichigo continued to twitch in pain on the bed, scratching at his chest as if something was underneath his skin, eating him alive. Ironically, that was basically what was going on unbeknown to those around him. On closer examination, Isshin deduced that Ichigo must have a collapsed lung. Not just one, but both lungs collapsed, unable to function causing the teen immense pain and the inability to breath without assistance. The most likely cause was an air bubble trapped between his lugs and chest. (2)

Taking a long, thin needle, Isshin punctured the area right next to his sternum and felt air. That would be the 'bubble'. He gently, and with the up most care, sucked it out. He repeated this process on the other side too, drawing the trapped air out. Once he removed the needle for the second time, Ichigo gasped, drawing in air as best as he could with the tubes in his throat on his own for the first time in several minutes.

He choked and rasped as he tried to breathe again, struggling with it. Taking notice that Ichigo could breathe once more, Isshin removed the tubes, seeing how they were just getting in the way now, and settled with just the oxygen mask again. Although able to breathe, Ichigo still struggled, grinding his teeth and wheezing terribly. Any air he brought in wasn't smooth but uneven and painful sounding.

Blood started to drip down from the corners of his mouth in steady streams and more just kept coming. Each time he breathed out, coughing almost every time, it would splatter against the clear mask on his face, slowly starting to fill it up. That wasn't supposed to happen.

"We need to get some x-rays of his lungs immediately!" Isshin said and his two little girls ran off to prepare the x-ray machine that they fortunately just got a month ago, courtesy of the main hospital for donating. Isshin prayed he could find out what was happening to his suffering son as he waited for his daughters to return.

They all quickly took the x-rays which they had to wait to get developed since the machine was an older model. Once ready, after about five long minutes of waiting, they got their results.

Staring wide eyed at the images of his son's lungs, he finally knew what was wrong at the moment.

Covering his lungs, ever inch of them, was bloodied burn-like wounds that were oozing blood, filling his lungs. Not only were those burns there, but also several small indents of flesh, about the size of a dime, were completely _gone._ They didn't go through the whole lining of the lungs though, just basically only missing the outside of it (3), but that was enough to get even Isshin to start panicking.

"We don't have the equipment to deal with this. We need to get Kisuke over here. He might be able to help." Isshin said as he picked up a phone, starting to dial the number of the 'humble' shop owner.

You see, when Ichigo and everyone else had come back with Orihime, Isshin had revealed to them all, at the time, of his true identity as a Shinigami, and it, of course, was a huge shock to everyone who hadn't expected it in the least bit. It made things easier though, for Ichigo didn't have to hide anything from him or the rest of his family anymore with business concerning Shinigami duties. Isshin had the same luxury with it as well and was able to talk more freely with him and also help him out more when the opportunities presented themselves.

But that information is in the past. Now, Ichigo was on a bed, barely breathing from the strain his lungs were in and close to drowning in his own blood.

A far too happy voice on the other end of the phone broke Isshin from these rather depressing thoughts as the shop owner answered.

"Hellooo!" said a rather high sounding voice with sleepiness in it. If Isshin didn't know better, he would have thought he actually was high. "This is the Urahara shop! May I ask who's calling at this hour?" Urahara asked with a yawn proceeding his question.

"Kisuke, it's me!" Isshin said with haste.

"Ah, Isshin! What do you need? It must be important if you're calling this late at night and waking me up from my wonderful sleep."

"It is!" he said, not paying any attention to the sarcasm, "Listen, I need you to come to my house and hurry!"

"It's Ichigo. I'm not really sure what's happening but I need you and Tessai over here to heal him! It's bad and I don't have the equipment to help!" Isshin said desperately.

"…I'm on my way." Urahara said and hung up.

No more than ten minutes later, both he and Tessai rang the door bell. Isshin quickly ushered them into the room Ichigo was occupying. Upon entering, Urahara and Tessai showed no real change that they were surprised or not at what they saw. Urahara just flipped his fan out of nowhere, hiding anything below the eyes so no one could really tell what was going on in his whacked up head. Tessai just stood there with the same, stoic expression on his face, never changing.

After a couple of seconds of just staring at the young Shinigami before them, they suddenly moved, getting straight to work on him.

"You don't look so good, Ichigo." The stripped hat man stated with sarcasm drenching his words.

Ichigo didn't even try to respond. He knew that he wouldn't be able to considering the condition of his lungs. They still felt like liquid fire was burning them from the inside out. Every breath felt like someone was tearing the flesh from them, ripping it off with no remorse, and just doing it over and over again every time he inhaled.

Tessai started performing high level Kido spells to heal Ichigo's mysteriously wounded lungs. It was extremely complicated and took a great amount of energy, but it would pay off in the long run. Since he needed concentration, Urahara scooted Isshin and the girls out of the room and into the hallway, giving them a sly grin as he shut the door.

They all moved to the living room to be more comfortable and have more room, but it didn't matter to them really. Isshin couldn't keep still, pacing back and forth through the room, just waiting for news from his old friend. The girls, Rukia included, sat on the couch, fidgeting and moving or tapping their feet showing their impatience.

After what seemed like an eternity, Urahara emerged from the small room, fanning himself like always.

Everyone was on their feet, asking a million questions at once.

"How is he?"

"Is he going to be okay?"

What's wrong with him?"

"How did he get hurt so bad all of the sudden?"

"Whoa, whoa! Hold on there folks." Urahara said, waving his fan at them, "He's going to be fine. Tessai's just finishing up in there as we speak, so you have nothing to worry about!"

A relieved sigh was heard from everyone. But, one question still remained. "How did he get hurt like that?" Isshin asked with concern.

"I actually need to talk to you about that." He said, motioning Isshin towards the hallway. Once there, he started talking.

"I couldn't find anything that could have caused this, at least not from the living world. It could be something spiritual, although what, I'm not sure. Could you tell me what happened before this? Hmm?" he said with his mischievous grin.

"Nothing. He was sleeping and so was everyone else. Karin and Yuzu just woke me up, dragged me to his room, and there he was; on the floor, not breathing. Turns out that both his lungs collapsed so I fixed that but he wasn't improving and started coughing up a lot of blood. So we took x-rays of his lungs and you've already seen those.

"How peculiar. This type of thing doesn't just happen without reason though, so something must have occurred recently."

"Well, I've already told you how he's been sick for the past couple of days. At first, I thought it was just food poisoning, but he hasn't eaten anything that we haven't, and food poisoning doesn't last this long. After that, I thought it was a bad virus but a virus can't cause collapsed and _burned _lungs."

"True. It definitely could be something pertaining to the spiritual world, but that possibility is fuzzy right now and can't be considered the only ting out there causing this."

"But what?" Isshin pleaded, desperate for an answer.

"Ah," Urahara said, snapping his fan closed, "Isn't that the great mystery of life?" he chuckled. Isshin just sighed, basically defeated at trying to deal with the erratic shop keeper before him.

"Boss," Tessai said, emerging from the room at last, "The healing is complete. He's resting now."

"Thank you, Tessai!" he replied in a cheerful voice. "Would you like to go see him?" he said, turning to face Isshin.

"Yeah, I would."

"Okee-dokee then! But don't stay too long, he needs to rest ya know!"

"I know. _I'm_ the doctor!" Isshin retorted, playfulness back in his voice now that they were near the others once more. Only Isshin was, for the moment, allowed to see Ichigo. One, because he did need to rest and not be disturbed, and two, the room was just _way_ too small for everyone to be in there at once.

Opening the door, he was greeted with the, now steady, beeping of the heart monitor and the silent hum of the respirator, still hooked up to the oxygen mask. Ichigo lay in the white bed, sheets slightly splattered with blood, wheezing still with uneven breaths. His face was once again contorted in pain.

"Even with the Kido, we weren't able to completely heal him." Urahara said from right behind him, scaring him out of his skin, almost literally. "It's strange because he should be perfectly fine now." Isshin just grunted in reply that he heard him.

"I'm going to go back to my shop and do a little research on the matter; see what I can dig up. I may just stumble across the answer, you never know."

"Yeah, I'll do the same here."

"No. You just keep an eye on him and call me if anything unusual or out of the ordinary occurs. You still have a family that looks up to you for guidance ya know."

Of course! He couldn't just go off and leave his family without anywhere to go or do. He needed to be there for them. That was his sole job and he had to carry that duty alone ever since his wife, Masaki, died. He _needed_ to be there for them, especially in this kind of situation.

"Well them, I'm off." Urahara said, waving over his shoulder as he and Tessai exited trough the font door. He watched them leave before turning back towards his son once more.

'_Something is definitely not right here, and I'll be _damned _if I can't figure it out what it is!'_

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The normally clear, blue sky was clouded over with dark, ominous forms that that covered every space available. The blue, sideways buildings were now a depressing dark gray color, reflecting the sky above. A pale, deathly white figure stood on one of these buildings, greatly contrasting with his surroundings, looking up at the sign of promising rain. No emotion was present on his face until the rain did fall, only if in mere sprinkles.

His face split into a grin as the drops splattered against his face. He brought his head down and looked at the unconscious body by his feet, keeling down beside it, hands resting on his knees.

"**Well, King, how did you like part one?" **the hollow within the boy's soul asked, **"I hope ya don't think it's gonna end anytime soon, 'cause it's only just beginin'. Soon, ya won't have any hold on me anymore, ****_yer majesty._****"**

Running a chalk white hand through the short, orange locks, he chuckled at the shudder that went through the boy's body.

Oh, he was going to enjoy this. He slowly leaned down till his mouth as only a hair's length away from his ear and whispered two words.

"**_Wake up."_**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**(1): trachea is another word for windpipe or the pathway that the air travels down from to the lungs.**

**(2): Collapsed lung(s) are caused by air or gas trapped between the lung and the chest wall. This causes the lung(s) to not be able to function properly and create sever pain to the 'victim'. It usually doesn't cause the lungs to stop functioning but it can in more severe cases. The symptoms are usually sharp, stabbing pain the chest that can radiate to the shoulders and back, shortness of breath (or none at all), and a dry, hacking cough. It usually occurs in tall, thin people because of the way that their chest is built for some reason and people who smoke and junk like that. To fix it, the air must be removed usually but sucking it out with a needle or syringe, and once the air is removed, the lungs can function basically like normal again. **

**emedicine health .com /collapsed _lung /article _em .htm**

**(3): What I'm picturing here with the dime sized hole like wounds are just, almost like indents in the lining of his lungs. A portion of them are gone but not all the way through the lining, just kinda barely missing going through it all the way. A good way to look at it is by picturing a brick wall and taking one of the bricks and cutting 3/4 of it off and putting it back in the wall.**** Hope that's not too confusing.**

**A/N: Wow! That was a lot, huh! I was just on a roll writing this and everything just kept coming! XD Anyways… I hope that I didn't confuse anyone with all the medical references and junk but there's some explanation for it above. Let me just say that writing Isshin's perverted dream was actually really fun and creepy and the same time! Confliction~!**

**Just to inform you, the last part at the end is **_**not **_**yaoi! I just thought that it would be something Hichigo (Ichigo's hollow) would do that's kinda creepy. Idk… So, did you like it? Oh, please tell me if you did…in a review! It would be so wonderful if you did! XD Thanks for reading and I love you all! :3**


	8. Breaking Bonds

**A/N: And here's another chapter for all the boys and girls who are kind enough to read my story! Thanks for all those who are reviewing (you know who you are! X3) and I really appreciate it! Oh! Are you ready for this? Oh…oh…OH NO! HERE COMES THE DISCLAIMER! RUN AND HIDE!**

**I don't own bleach…**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Isshin's strong, gentle hands draped blankets over the three girls asleep on the couch, leaning against one another. They had all been up ever since Ichigo got 'hurt' mysteriously during the middle of the night and they must have been exhausted from everything. Out of all of them, Rukia was probably the most worried. She hadn't stopped walking or peeking into Ichigo's little room to check on him, and every time she came back to the living room in slight relief that he was still doing okay in a sense, but just kept going back every other minute.

Through the whole time, Ichigo had been unconscious. A fever had started plaguing him once more, around 103°, and was steadily rising, even with the constant medicine Isshin was pumping into him. He was miserable.

Isshin walked into the kitchen and started making some coffee. After everything, he too was dead tired and needed something to keep his awake. He decided that he wouldn't make the girls go to school today; they would be way too tired and worried to even try to pay attention. They needed to rest anyways.

What was _he_ going to do though? He didn't just want to watch his son all day, doing nothing. Was he just supposed to sit there, not being able to do anything at all while his son suffered from an unknown cause? What could he do to help him? All these questions ran rampant through his head as he walked back into Ichigo's room.

Everything was normal, well, as normal as you could get with this family and situation. Ichigo was asleep at the moment at least. Checking his temperature again, he found that it was 103.5° now. Why was it going up so fast? Everything was basically all the way healed and there weren't any signs of infection as far as he knew. The Kido healing took basically all possibilities of that away. What could be going on? _(I __know __I __keep __writing __that __question __a __lot __but __it's __basically __the __main __question __they __want __to __know)_

Whimpering lightly, Ichigo tossed a bit in his bed. Taking a closer look, Isshin noticed how he was sweating profusely and his breathing was even more ragged than before. A sharp shudder traveled through his body before his eyes snapped open and he shop up, grabbing at the air. He gasped as pain racked through his body and fell back down onto his bed.

Startled, Isshin was at his side as soon as he hit the bed. "Calm down, Ichigo! It's Okay!" he said in a soothing voice, trying to calm down his son who seemed in some sort of panic about something.

"Wh…what?" he said, finally coming to his senses, "What's going on?...Where am I?"

"You're in the house's clinic. Your lungs were badly wounded in the middle of the night and we had to move you down here."

"Wounded? Wounded how?"

"Well," Isshin said, rubbing the back of his head, "We don't really know how but your lungs, both of them, collapsed, were burned and had unusual hole like wounds on them. Kisuke had to come and heal you. I'm not surprised you don't really remember it all 'cause you were really out of it and on the brink of unconsciousness the whole time."

"No, I kinda remember Hat n' Clogs but it's all fuzzy."

"What else do you remember?"

"Not that much, just fragments and…" Ichigo trailed off as his eyes became unfocused and starred off into nothing while his faced flushed.

"Ichigo, you okay?" Isshin asked as he gently shook his shoulder.

"N-no…g-go away!" he said to seemingly no one. His voice was shaking as was the rest of his body. "Please…leave me alone!"

"Ichigo, what are you talking about? Snap out of it!" Ichigo's reiatsu was starting to fluctuate in an unusual manner and when it spiked, it seemed tinted with what felt like a…hollow. Isshin knew about how Ichigo was a Vizard but he also knew how he had control over the hollow within him. Was his control on his inner hollow slipping?

'**_Oh _****_Ichigo~! _****_What's _****_wrong? _****_Aren't _****_ya _****_excited?'_** the voice inside his head asked, **_'After _****_all, _****_this _****_is _****_kinda _****_like _****_a _****_ceremony. _****_Y' _****_know, _****_for _****_your _****_dethronin'.'_**

"No!" Ichigo screamed back at it, which only caused the creature to laugh hysterically. He was now grabbing at his head and starting to pull at his hair for his voice kept getting louder every time it spoke. It drowned out everything else so he wasn't even able to hear his father right beside him.

'_**Come **__**on! **__**It's **__**not **__**gonna **__**be **__**that **__**bad. **__**I'm **__**not **__**gonna **__**kill **__**ya **__**(yet). **__**Sure **__**it's **__**gonna **__**hurt, **__**but **__**I **__**need **__**to **__**take **__**care **__**of **_**my **_**body **__**after **__**all!'**_

Ichigo's mind was assaulted with the gruesome, vivid images of all his friends being slaughtered, very similar to the 'dream' he had, but the images didn't stop there. They went farther and showed many different 'unique', one could say, ways to torture them. Each time their faces crossed his vision's path, they would be screaming from how much pain they would be in. And, every time, his own face would be hovering over them, covered by the mask or bare, laughing at their suffering with their blood on his hands.

Not only were these images hurting him mentally, but physically. They bore their way into his skull and it _hurt_. He thrashed and flailed on the bed as he screamed out as best as he could since his lungs were still recovering. In fact, he reopened the wounds inflicted to them with the strain of screaming and started coughing up blood in between screams.

"Rukia!" Isshin screamed himself, hoping to wake her up to help him. She came running to the door looking fearful. She had every right to be. "Go get his Shinigami badge! We need to get him out of is body and to Kisuke's!" She ran off without another thought at those orders.

Ichigo was thrashing less and stopped screaming now for his energy, or what little he had left, was quickly draining. Rukia came running back with the badge in hand and basically threw it at Isshin. He took (caught) it and quickly pressed it to Ichigo's chest. His spirit form separated from his human body and he fell to the floor. He was still grabbing at his head and was curled up in a tight ball, twitching slightly.

Isshin changed himself and gathered Ichigo up in his strong arms before jumping out the door. Rukia, also in Shinigami garb, was right behind him. "We'll be back! Just stay here until we do!" he told his daughters over his shoulder who were cuddling close to each other.

Both Shinigami jumped hurriedly across the rooftops towards the small shop. Isshin was slightly ahead of Rukia who was doing her best to keep up, but he wasn't even paying attention to her. All he was focused on was getting the sick boy in his arms to probably the only one who might be able to help him as soon as he could.

Finally, the shop came into view. It really did seem out of place compared to everything around it. Almost like it belonged in a different time period in a way. Landing in front of the wooden door, Isshin flung it opened and yelled inside, "Kisuke! Get over here!"

Said person came nonchalantly into the front of the little candy store with his ever present fan out. "Oh, what do we have here? Tessai! Could you prepare some tea and a bed for young Ichigo please?"

He motioned for the both to follow him into one of the back rooms and they complied very quick and willingly.

"So, what seems to be the problem?" he asked sarcastically.

"Are you blind?" Rukia screamed at him, "Just look at Ichigo!" she motioned towards the curled up figure in Isshin's arms that was still grasping tightly at his head. He no longer had any energy left and was left to suffer silently from whatever he was being plagued with.

Urahara leaned in closer, "Ah! Now I see! Let's try and get him fixed up then, shall we!"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It was a beautiful morning; perfect weather for walking to school in. Humming happily, Orihime walked along in no hurry, enjoying the day and its offerings. Her eyes lit up as she saw the gentle giant come from around the corner.

"Good morning Sado-kun!" Orihime greeted with a bubbly attitude as always.

"Mmh." He replied with his normal grunt. Sado, or Chad as everyone seemed to call him, never really did talk that much.

"Did you finish last night's assigned essay?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"That's good! What did you do yours on?"

"The effects that higher dropout rates have produced on the society."

"Wow! That's cool! I did mine on what the world would be like if we all had tails to climb stuff with and robot arms that were able to transform into weapons like lasers and bazookas and machine guns!"

"Hmm."

"I wonder what Ishida and Tatsuki did theirs on? Probably something really amazing with how good they are at writing."

"Hey Orihime!Chad!" a tom-boyish voice called from behind them. They turned around and spotted Tatsuki waving as she ran up to them. Orihime returned the gesture with a wave of her own while Chad just nodded his head. "How are you guys?"

"Fine."

"Great!"

"That's good. Have any of you seen Ichigo today? I didn't see him on my way to school. Have you?"

"No, I haven't." Orihime said, "Kuchiki-san said he hasn't been feeling very well lately, but I haven't seen her today either. Maybe he's feeling better and he and Kuchiki-san are already at school."

"Yeah, maybe."

They all started walking together towards the school with Orihime and Tatsuki talking about rather random subjects with Chad walking beside them, silently listening to them but also thinking about his own private thoughts.

He stopped suddenly when he felt something coming their way. Tatsuki and Orihime, although they felt the force coming later than Chad did, also stopped a couple feet ahead of him.

"That kinda feels like Kuchiki-san and Kurosaki-kun's dad." Orihime stated.

"Yeah," Tatsuki replied, "I wonder what they're doing together?"

The two previously mentioned Shinigami were seen jumping across the tops of buildings and seemed to be in a hurry over something. "Where do you think they're going?" Orihime asked.

"It looks like they're headed for Urahara's. Why are they going there in such a rush?" Tatsuki answered. Then, right before the Shinigami went out of sight, they all saw a glimpse of orange being carried by Isshin. That shocked them all.

"That was Ichigo."Chad stated with worry.

"Is he hurt?" Orihime asked with fear in her eyes.

"Come on! Let's go to Urahara's and check it out!" Tatsuki said as they all started running off towards the small shop. They arrived there in no less than ten minutes, panting as they reached the door.

"What do you mean you don't have an answer?" they heard a very angry voice from inside that sounded very similar to Rukia's.

"I'm sorry Miss Kuchiki, but I just can't find anything that could be causing this."

"Well can't you at least heal him?" this time it was Isshin's voice that they heard laded with concern. All three students decided to enter the store at that time and were greeted by the shy Ururu who ushered them into the back room where the other Shinigami were presiding.

"I'm sorry, but this illness doesn't seem to be able to be healed with the usual Kido methods. It's almost as if something unseen is responsible for all of this that we aren't aware of. What, I'm not sure."

"Could it be something concerning his hollow?" Isshin asked as the three other people entered the room with shocked expressions on hearing his question.

"Ah, hello there kids! Come in and sit down. Would any of you care for some tea?" Urahara asked in his normal care-free attitude.

"Cut the crap, Urahara! Tell us what's wrong with Ichigo!" Tatsuki yelled at the stripped hat man who seemed over dramatically hurt at this.

"Oh, Arisawa-san! You're so cruel!" he said while placing a hand over his 'wounded' heart.

"Please Urahara-san. Is Kurosaki-kun okay?" Orihime asked in a much calmer and quieter voice than Tatsuki.

"We're not quite sure on that. You see, we can't figure out what's wrong or why any of this is occurring at the moments so we don't know how to help him right now."

"What about what Isshin said about his hollow?"Chad asked, silencing everyone in the room.

"That could be a possibility, but, as I'm aware, he has it under control."

Silence overtook the room again as everyone considered the possibilities of what could have Ichigo reduced to his current condition.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Loud. Overbearing. Cruel. Heartless.

These were some of the best ways to describe the monster's voice in his head that just _wouldn't __go __away_. Anything he did to try and block it out was just pushed aside as the creature's voice and torments grew in both volume and amount. The images continued to bombard his mind without remorse and it was almost to the point were he couldn't or wouldn't be able to handle it anymore.

'_**That's **__**it, **__**King. **__**Give **__**in. **__**If **__**ya **__**do, **__**then **__**ya **__**won't **__**have **__**ta **__**worry **__**any more **__**'cause **_**I'll **_**be **__**the **__**one **__**in **__**control!'**_

"N…n-no." Ichigo said with great effort. The pain was making everything difficult.

'**_Ya _****_don't _****_have _****_a _****_choice!'_** he hissed back, **_'Time _****_ta _****_severe _****_my _****_bonds!'_**

Ichigo heard the sound of a sword scrapping against the ground before the pain came, right through his core. It went from his lower abdomen add traveled up through the center of his chest; the exact pathway a sword could take. He could also feel someone else's reiatsu coming from it.

It took a couple of seconds for the pain to register all the way. At first it just felt like a dull ache, but then it exploded.

He couldn't help but scream out.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Everyone was contemplating the new information they just received and were spitting out questions every two seconds.

"Well," Isshin interjected, "What about-"

"AHHHHHHHH!" sounded from the room next to theirs. The scream was bone-chilling, stomach-wrenching, and made all their blood run cold.

They were all on their feet in less than a second and burst through the door to the other side. There was Ichigo, on the floor screaming his lungs out. His back was arched and his hands were clawing at the air. Tessai was beside him and trying to find out what the problem was, but you could see that he was panicking ever so slightly.

"Tessai, what happened!" Urahara screamed over the other.

"I don't know, Boss! He just started screaming and I can't find anything wrong yet!" he yelled back.

Urahara dropped to his knees and started quickly checking over the screaming boy. What he found puzzled, intrigued, and worried him. There was another form of foreign reiatsu flowing into his system through a sword like wound that went vertically up through this center. The wound was internal and somehow, the reiatsu was pouring out very quickly into the rest of his body. Where was it coming from?

Ichigo's screams were increasing in volume as more and more of the foreign reiatsu entered him, obviously causing him immense pain. The by-standers, including Orihime, Tatsuki, Chad, Rukia, and Isshin, couldn't do anything to help so the just watched on in horror. Urahara motioned for Orihime to come over by him and she ran up to his side.

"Orihime-san, can you try to heal him?"

"Yes, I can try." She brought her hands up to her hairpins which glowed and two of the flower petals flew off to form the very familiar orange shield over Ichigo. Nothing was changing and, if anything, his screams just kept increasing even more. Cracks started appearing throughout the surface of the glowing shield and spread in the form that looked like a spider's web. The strain was too much for it and it shattered into several pieces.

"Wh-what? Th-that's never happened before!" Orihime stammered, "I can't heal him!"

"Tessai!" Urahara said with rare sternness.

"Yes, Boss!" he relied and ran off with the silent order that only he could decipher. He came back into the room carrying a box-like thing with two cords coming out of one of its sides. At the end of them where odd looking handles that had coils on the bottom that were giving off sparks that were blue and green in color. He set it next to Urahara who picked it up by the handles.

"What's that for?" Isshin asked, eyeing the weird device questionably.

"It will stop the foreign reiatsu from flowing and start to stabilize his own." Urahara explained as he rubbed the two handles together, just like one would with a defibrillator. (1)

"Everyone else might want to take a step back." He said while everyone took three steps back just for good measure. He turned back to Ichigo, "Just to warn you Ichigo, this is gonna hurt!" he yelled.

He pushed the two devices onto Ichigo's chest and the sparks danced around his body as his screams reached new levels. Orihime huddled close to Tatsuki and covered her ears to try and block out the horrid sound penetrating hers as well as everyone else's ears. All others were visibly holding themselves back from rushing to Ichigo's side and stopping Urahara.

With Ichigo, the pain was just too great and he wouldn't be able to take it much longer. Right before he had enough and gave up, he felt a very tight pulling feeling in his chest that overpowered everything else.

It kept getting tighter and tighter, pulling at his very being and something very deep within himself. With a noise that sounded like someone pushing forward mixed with a laugh…the tension _broke._

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**(1): Defibrillator is one of those things that doctors use to revive patients who's hearts have stopped with a powerful electric charge/pulse. You know, those things they rub together and yell, "CLEAR!" with?**

**A/N: Hehe…terrible, aren't I? ;P Both about Ichigo **_**and **_**the cliffhanger. Something I found funny while writing this: Isshin- Ichigo, are you okay? Ichigo- No! Isshin- Snap out of it! Ichigo- No! XD Anyways… This one was really fun and...interesting to write! My next update might be later than usual because of finals coming up this week and next but I'll do my best to get the chapters out. I promise! Please review! I LOVE it when people review and it really gets me motivated, honest! If you have any comments or constructive criticism, than that will definitely be accepted. Also, if you have any ideas on it you can talk about that as well 'cause I'm open for suggestions! :D Thanks for reading! :3**


	9. False Hope

**A/N: Hey~! The first of my finals are done! *Throws papers in the air* For a little celebration for finishing a couple of them I made this chapter a little longer than normal! Yes… I know I rock X3 In this one, there's a lot of different perspectives going on and I hope that it's not confusing to anyone. For now, fill your heart with joy at the suffering of others! XD "SHIRO! What's this mess? And have you told them yet?" *scrambles to pick papers on floor up* "Yeah, mom! I'm cleaning it up and telling them right now!"**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach :'(**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Unknown Time

Walking back into the huge Research and development observation room, Rin sat down in his chair with a fresh bag of cookies. Munching on them, he took a look at the monitor showing the recent activities going on in the World of the Living. Nothing was out of the ordinary on the scans and everything was running smoothly; no deaths (so far), injured, or abnormalities occurring.

Rin started spinning around in is chair as he tried to get rid of his boredom at nothing happening.

"Will you stop that, Rin?" Akon, a researcher with horns coming out of his forehead yelled and caused Rin to fall out of his chair, spilling some of his cookies on the floor.

"S-sorry!" he apologized while he picked up the spilled cookies.

"And will you stop eating so much junk food! They're for everyone y' know!" Hiyosu, another researcher said that was green and strangely resembled a frog like creature yelled.

"Yeah, okay." He said, rubbing the back of his head. Beeping on his monitor immediately got his attention and he was over there in a second. Typing on the keyboard, he attempted to figure out what the alarm was going off for. "Abnormality detected in Sector 1 of Karakura Town! High level hollow reiatsu is coming up on the scanner and it is steadily growing."

"What type is it?" Akon asked.

"I can't identify it at the moment but its energy level keeps going up. Right now it's at a powerful Adjuchas class." Rin replied.

The next reading he got on the strange hollow caused him to just stare at the screen in shock. "I-it just jumped to a Vasto Lorde class!"

"What? Get its location!"

"Yes sir!" Rin started typing furiously, but then an error sign appeared on his screen, along with the alarm stopping. "What? The energy signal just vanished." He said, flabbergasted.

"Huh? Are you sure your monitor isn't broken?" Hiyosu asked.

"No, it's working fine. It just got inspected last week."

"How much information did you get on it?" Akon questioned.

"Not that much. Just a basic outline."

"Print what you have out. We'll inform the stationed representative there and keep an eye on it for now. If anything else comes up, we'll report it. For now, everyone go back to work." He ordered, dismissing the incident for the moment.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The Present

Another boring day. Another hot, blinding, and dreadfully boring day. Why did the mornings always have to start off like this? With nothing interesting going on and just the regular routine replaying over and over again, never seeming to end.

He let out a long sigh as he continued to contemplate these things on his all too normal walk to school with his bag, like always, slung over his shoulder. _'__Urg__…__why __does __it __have __to __be __so __hot __in __the __beginning __of __spring?__'_

Finally arriving at the notorious Karakura High School building, he walked in and made his way towards the room which housed his class. Right when he was about to reach the door, there was the sound of rushing footsteps through the hall and someone screaming his name, sounding like that person had _way_ too much sugar.

"IIIIIIIICCHHHHIIIIIIIIGGO-" Keigo yelled before being close lined by Ichigo's outstretched arm.

"Hey Keigo." Ichigo said and completely ignored his friend twitching on the floor as he walked into the room. Once in there, he was greeted by the many voices of his classmates talking about basically nothing at all. He made his way to his desk by the window and sat down, resting his chin on his palm, looking out the window.

"Good morning, Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime said happily beside him. He turned towards her and saw her genuinely happy smile as she looked at him.

"Ah, good morning Orihime."

"How are you feeling today?" she asked as she tilted her head to the side.

"Fine. Nothing different." He replied and shrugged his shoulders.

"That's good!" she said with glee.

Three weeks ago, Ichigo gave everyone a huge scare. He kept getting ill and injured for no apparent reason and every time, it just got worse. The best explanation Urahara could give was that Ichigo probably caught some weird and unknown spiritual virus that caused the odd illness and injuries. That, or he was just being clumsy. Rukia pounded him pretty good for that lame answer.

For no apparent reason, when Urahara had used that odd machine on Ichigo, he passed out and actually got slightly worse before he got better. When he _was_ showing signs of improvement, although small, he stated getting progressively better. It was a long process but Ichigo eventually recovered and returned to his far from normal life as a human and Substitute Shinigami. Rukia and the rest of his family did make sure that he took it easy and didn't push himself too much just yet to be on the safe side.

What had been playing at his thoughts was how he hadn't seen or heard any signs of his hollow during all that time. The hollow had promised him that he would be freed and that's what happened when Ichigo felt that weird and painful feeling in his chest break, right? If he was in fact free of his bonds that were holding him back, then why did it seem like he just disappeared?

Letting out another long sigh, Ichigo shook his head to try to stop that train of thought. He looked up when the teacher, Ochi-sensei, entered the room, slapping her book on her desk and yelling at the class to shut up and take their seats. She began a very boring lesson on math and all the joys that can come from learning it. As if.

Ichigo's thoughts wondered yet again as he tried, and failed, to pay attention to the mind numbing lesson. He noticed a very mild headache coming on that just kept increasing the longer the teacher talked. _'__Just __perfect; __another __thing __to __deal __with.__'_ He thought as the pain started to become sharper than previously when it was just a dull ache.

He clutched it lightly and rubbed his temples. Standing up, he walked towards the door and told the teacher the he was going to the nurse's to get some Tylenol for his headache. She didn't even look up from writing on the board and waved her hand to go ahead, continuing with the lecture.

His friends watched him leave, concerned for him, so he gave them a reassuring glance back before closing the door behind him.

Ichigo walked down the hallway slowly, in no rush at all to get there fast and return to class. Taking his time, he made his way towards the room the school nurse resided in. His headache was getting far worse and was really started to annoy him now along with the pain it brought.

His headache got so bad after a couple minutes of walking that he had to stop and lean against the wall to steady himself. He was panting heavily and his vision flickered, not helping at all.

'_**Hahahahahahaha!'**_

Ichigo's eyes widened and he spun around to try and see where the voice was coming from, hoping that it wasn't who he thought it was. He lost his vision completely for a split second from the sudden motion and he had to grab onto the wall to stop from falling to the unforgiving floor.

'_**Did **__**ya **_**really **_**think **__**ya **__**were **__**rid **__**of **__**me?**__**'**_ the voice taunted, causing Ichigo to shake uncontrollably._** '**__**I **__**was **__**just**__**…**__**preparing. **__**Ta **__**give **__**ya **__**hope **__**tha**__**' **__**I **__**could **__**rip **__**away **__**from **__**ya!**__**'**_

Ichigo could feel himself slipping back from his body, slowly but surely, and began to fight back. The edge of his vision on his left eye was beginning to be overtaken by black threads clawing farther along it and leaving only blackness in its wake.

Taking a very shaky step forward, he tried to move somewhere else that was out of sight from anyone who might be nearby. He managed to get around four steps in before his knees buckled, sending him into the grip of gravity onto the floor. He reached out in front of him with a weak arm to grab onto the floor to pull himself along, but fell down with the rest of his body.

Eyes rolling back in his head, he lost his grip on whatever form of consciousness he was able to hold.

'_**Che!**__**'**_ the hollows voice sounded, annoyed at this,_** '**__**Weak.**__**'**_

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Dehydra…could be…possibili…hot day…" a very muffled voice said. He wasn't able to make out exactly what it was saying though. What was it talking about?

"How…fix…maybe…Ichigo…" a different one sounded. Why did it seem like he had cotton stuffed in his ears and why did his head feel like someone gave Kenpachi a giant hammer and let him hit him with it repeatedly for hours?

The voices were started to clear up so he was able to make out a little more of what they were saying. "It looks like…coming…now." He moaned and lifted a hand up to his head to try and sooth it. "Ichigo? Can you…your eyes?" a gentle voice asked.

Prying his eyes open, they focused on the semi-blurry face of the school nurse. "Ah, good! Glad to see you awake again!" she said and smiled to him.

"Urg…what happened?' he said as he closed his eyes for a moment; they were sore for some reason.

"I'm pretty sure that you had a heat stroke because of the hot day and also because you were pretty dehydrated. You were found passed out in the hallway by a couple of your friends a little while ago and they brought you here." The nurse explained.

Rukia stepped into his view at her mention along with…_ '__Uryu? __That__'__s __weird. __He __usually __doesn__'__t __care __at __all __about __whether __I__'__m __fine __or __not. __Then __again, __he __might __have __been __the __first __one __to __sense __me when I passed out. __Huh__…'_

Pushing these thoughts to the back of his head, he sat up, still a little light headed, and grabbed the glass of water the nurse handed him. "Make sure you drink plenty of fluids today and don't stay in the heat too long." She kindly instructed.

"Alright."

"Let me know if you need anything." the kind nurse said and walked back to her little office space to do some paperwork.

Turning back towards his friends, he gave them a sort of half smile and started getting out of bed. He tumbled a bit on his feet before regaining his balance, stabilizing himself. His head still hurt terribly and that pain brought back the memories of what _really_ happened.

His face lost all color and Rukia came up beside him. "Are you sure you're okay? Maybe you should lie back down."

"No, I'm fine." He lied and shrugged her off, "My head just hurts still is all." That was somewhat the truth.

"Okay…" she replied back, not really believing that he was fine just yet.

"I'm gonna go get some pain medicine from the nurse and head home. I don't really want to deal with school with a headache. Tell Ochi-sensei for me will you?"

"I'm sure we can manage that." Uryu said and pushed up his glasses in a very nerdy manner.

"Thanks."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Walking home, he welcomed the thoughts of the quiet house that he would be able to rest in without interruptions. No one would be attacking him out of the blue or tackling his door down for a while, at least not until everyone returned home.

'_**Ya really don't believe tha', do ya? If ya do, than yer even more stupid than I thought.'**_

Ichigo shut is eyes and grabbed the left side of his face. He staggered forward for a few steps before coming to a shaky stop. "Not now. Why can't you just leave me alone?" he hissed between his teeth.

The hollow laughed before giving an answer with a question of his own, _**'**__**Why **__**do **_**you **_**think **__**ya **__**still **__**have **__**control **__**over **__**me? **__**An**__**' **__**why **__**not **__**now? **__**I **__**think **__**now **__**is **_**perfect.****'** He purred, sounding like a cat with his warbled voice when he said it.

"What? Why?" Ichigo asked, not liking where this was going so far.

'**_God, __yer __so __stupid.__ '__Cause __none __of __yer __idiot, __annoyin__' __friends __are __nearby. __I __have __no __limits __around __now, __nothin' __holding __me __back __any more __either. __So, __I __can __do _this!'**

Ichigo felt himself being forcefully pushed back again, and almost like he was being pulled inside himself at the same time. If he wasn't fighting for control, he would have thought more about how weird that felt. Right now, he was in a loosing battle for his soul with a monster.

"No!...I won't let you!" Ichigo said with a strained voice. He was now on his knees, grasping at his head with both hands as he fought to gain ground against the opposing force. His entire left eye was blackened and his right eye was almost halfway covered. He could feel something being changed with his body. Not sure which one; spiritual, human, or both. But, it did not seem normal in the least bit.

For some reason, the hollow was easing up, and a couple seconds later stopped completely.

'_**Che**__**…**__**next **__**time, **__**King.**__**'**_ He said sounding kind of disappointed.

"What?" Ichigo said, very confused at this behavior. The hollow had left him panting, sweating, and exhausted. Why had he just stopped? He was almost in control of his body all the way, so what caused him to back off all of the sudden?

Slowly getting to his feet, he continued onwards towards his house. He could feel something grazing his shoulders but just pushed the thought aside for his focus was on reaching his house to rest. Once finally reaching it, which seemed like it took forever, he stumbled through the door, up the stairs, into his room, flung his bag on the ground, and "plopped" onto his bed face first. He was asleep the second his head made contact with the cloud of a pillow.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Somewhere in Karakura

Slashing down with his sword, Renji disposed of the hollow with ease. Its cries of pain echoed around him before they disappeared along with the rest of its body, disintegrating into nothingness.

Sheathing is sword, Renji started casually hopping on the buildings towards no where in general._ '__I __wonder __what __Rukia __is __doing __right __now? __Probably __in __school __with __everyone __else. __Damn, __I __wish I __was __there __instead __of __doing __this __lame __hollow __patrol.__'_

On the other side of town, Rukia was thinking the exact same thing, only she wanted to be in Renji's position instead of having to sit through more of the boring lecture she was enduring.

Jumping leisurely, Renji searched for any hollows nearby. He detected a very faint one only a short distance away from his current location so he shunpoed over to it. When he was led to a familiar teenager with striking orange hair, he was really confused.

'_Huh? __Why __does __there __feel __like __there__'__s __a __hollow __nearby __when __I __can__'__t __see __any? __Is __it __coming __from __Ichigo?__'_ he wondered as he started to watch what Ichigo was doing out of curiosity and shear boredom. He was staggering a bit as he walked and didn't look like he was focusing on his actions.

Renji walked behind him, masking his presence, and continued to watch him. Then, Ichigo suddenly grabbed his face and stopped in his tracts. He began muttering something to himself as his reiatsu started to flicked and rise. Wondering if he was okay or not, Renji started to walk up to him. He stopped when he hadn't even taken two steps and gasped. Ichigo's reiatsu just jumped through the roof, much higher than even a Taichou's, and was feeling more and more like a hollow's every second.

He strained his neck to look up at Ichigo because his oppressing reiatsu was pushing him down, and saw Ichigo on his knees, again talking to himself. What surprised him even more was how he could _see_ Ichigo's hair growing down to is shoulders and his skin paling by several shades.

Renji forced himself to move forward, trying to get to Ichigo's side. When he was about fifteen feet away, the reiatsu lifted and he fell, face first, on the ground.

Pulling his face off the gravel, Renji looked back up and saw Ichigo getting to his feet, not even glancing around himself, and started walking towards his home.

After getting over the initial shock, Renji scrambled to his own feet and headed after Ichigo. He was both curious and cautious at what just happened so he didn't let Ichigo become aware of his presence, even though it didn't seem like he paying attention to _anything_ around him.

He watched as Ichigo went up to his room and flopped down onto his bed. He observed that his hair was still long, down past his shoulders, and that his skin was still pale, but not as much as before, just a little lighter than his normal color. It didn't seem that Ichigo himself was aware of any of these changes though as he slept.

"What was that all about Ichigo? What's going on with you?" Renji asked, utterly confused at what he just witnessed. He took another second to look upon the sleeping teenager before jumping off towards a newly appeared hollow.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Karakura High

Rukia's head slipped off from the hand it was resting on, waking her up from her light nap. Blinking her eyes, she looked around the room and saw many of the other students doing the exact same thing; sleeping.

The teacher didn't even care, or didn't notice, and just kept blabbering on with whatever it was she was talking about. No matter how hard Rukia tried, she could _not_ pay attention. It didn't really matter if she did or not anyways. She just same to school to keep up her disguise as a 'normal' human, but she didn't need to do the work, just show up.

Sensing outside the classroom, Rukia found Ichigo's reiatsu signature and focused on that instead. He seemed to be getting home fine. He was going slow, but making it there none the less. Although, she noticed his reiatsu felt…strange. She couldn't quite place her finger on what was off though and it was really starting to bug her.

When Ichigo's reiatsu flickered, it got her more concerned in why and how it felt. It reminded her of a hollow but different in a way. Ichigo wasn't using his mask or anything like that that involved his hollow though, so why did it feel so odd?

She found herself gasping as his reiatsu sky rocketed, pushing down on her. The other spiritually aware people in the room felt it as well and their eyes were all extremely wide. At the same time, Rukia, Orihime, Chad, and Uryu, all stood up and claimed that they all needed to go to the restroom. Nobody waited for permission and all shot off down the hallway, leaving a confused classroom behind.

"Why is Kurosaki-kun's reiatsu so powerful all of the sudden?" Orihime asked as they ran through the halls.

"I don't know." Rukia said as they turned a corner, "There aren't any hollows nearby as far as I can tell."

Suddenly, Ichigo's reiatsu returned back to normal and the small group slowed to a stop. "That was different." Uryu said in a sarcastic voice.

"Should we go check on him?" Orihime questioned.

"No." Rukia said, "I can feel Renji near him so he should be able to see if he's alright or not. We should just go back to class. We don't need people wondering where we are."

Nodding their heads in agreement, the odd looking group started back towards the room where the boring lesson was probably still ongoing. None of them could sit still for the rest of class, too eager to get out and make sure that everything in town, including the Substitute, was normal.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Research and development

The blaring alarm sounded throughout the dimly lit room, causing everyone to hustle to their stations at their monitors and shout at each other.

"Sir, it's that powerful hollow reiatsu again!" Rin called out.

"Quick, get its location!" Akon shouted urgently.

About a minute of furious typing later, Rin stood up, "I got it!" he printed the data out and handed it to Akon who quickly took it.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Akon studied the paper's contents. "Bring this to Kurotsuchi-Taichou and inform him on what's occurred." He told a random member in the room as he handed the documents over to him.

Running down the hallway, the 12th squad officer came to the giant door that led into the lab of Kurotsuchi Mayuri, the Taichou of Squad 12. He nervously knocked on the door and the sound from it echoed all around him before the door opened. Nemu, the Fukutaichou of Squad 12, greeted him as her form became visible.

"Yes?" she asked in an emotionless voice that really freaked out the carrier of the information, "Is there something you need?"

"Uhhh… I have some important information that the Taichou needs to see immediately." He said, looking to the floor and walls; anywhere that didn't have the Fukutaichou's cold gaze. He shyly walked up to her, handing her the papers.

"I will make sure that he sees these." She said and slammed the door behind her, leaving the Shinigami standing in the hall with a dumb look.

Nemu waked up to her 'father' and patiently waited behind him. His face was glued to his screen as he typed things every now and then.

"What is it, Nemu?" he asked without looking back, sounding very annoyed, his gaze never leaving the ever-changing screen.

"These documents were just delivered to you and have been requested that you look over them as soon as possible." She stated in a monotone voice.

"Well than, give them here." He replied impatiently. She did as she was told and he quickly looked them over.

"Hmm…interesting." He said as he read through the information. His smile, which was extremely creepy and could effectively cause shudders to run through any sane person, grew tremendously when he finished.

Standing up from his chair, he made his way towards the door, Nemu in tow, and headed towards the 1st Division barracks. Coming to the entrance of the Soutaichou's office, he waited outside until his booming voice told him to enter.

Striding inside the room, he came up to the large wooden desk the Soutaichou was working at and set the papers on it.

"What are these?" the Soutaichou asked, eyeing the small stack.

"Our sensors picked up a Vasto Lorde class hollow in Karakura Town." He said as his smile widened. "Its reiatsu signature was _very_ similar to a certain Substitute residing there."

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**Japanese Words Key:**

**Taichou- Captain**

**Fukutaichou- Lieutenant**

****Soutaichou- Head Captain or Captain Commander****

****Reiatsu- Spirit Energy****

****Shinigami- Death God or Soul Reaper. It would be pretty sad if you didn't already know this...****

**A/N: I hope that was an interesting chapter for y'all and that it wasn't too confusing. -.- Again, I have a lot of finals coming up still but I'll still squeeze in time to work on this whenever I can. Please review 'cause y' know I love it! *wink, wink* Not really sure why I did that, but whatever. I'm off ta study now, so thanks for reading! *opens books up and slowly falls asleep* :3**


	10. Strange Hunger

**A/N: Late Merry Christmas to everyone out there~! I hope all of your times were grand and that you got lots of presents to swim in! (I got a TON of bleach stuff! *happy dance* . . . I'm such a nerd) Sorry that this chapter was a little later than normal, but in my defense, I had to take finals (four of them AP classes DX) and also had to deal with Christmas and all that junk (not to say that it isn't good junk! Hehe….) But enough of my excuses. On with the show!**

**hcaelB nwo t'nod I :remialcsiD **

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

"Call an emergency meeting for all Taichou's at once." Yamamoto ordered to his Fukutaichou who saluted and gave him a "Yes sir" before leaving the room.

"Now, you're sure that this information is credible and that no mistakes have been made, Kurotsuchi-Taichou?" the Soutaichou said as he turned back towards the clowned faced man in front of his desk.

"Yes. Our monitors only tell what is true and give the most accurate details so no mistakes are possible in this case." Mayuri explained with odd hand gestures as he spoke.

"Very well. You will report this information at the meeting when there." He said and stood up from his chair to make his way out of the room.

"Come, Nemu." Kurotsuchi said as he also headed out of the large room with Nemu following close behind. They both made their way to the area where the meeting was to be held, but Nemu had to stay outside considering how she was only a Fukutaichou and not a Taichou. In the large hall-like room, Mayuri waited with a huge smile on his face for the others to come.

Eventually, after five minutes or so, all the Taichous arrived, some looking slightly frazzled from getting there so quickly and more than a couple with concern and confusion etched on their faces at the sudden call to come. All lined up in the familiar two lines facing each other and were silenced at the sound of the Soutaichou pounding his staff on the floor. He peered though his slitted eyes, which he opened ever so slightly, and let his gaze traveled across everyone in the room, resting longer on some more than others. Finally going over every occupant he stated why they were al assembled there on such short notice.

"The reason that I have assembled you all here is to discuss a matter that has just recently occurred in Karakura Town. The Research and Development bureau has gathered information on recent hollow activity that is of grave importance." The Soutaichou said and motioned towards Mayuri to continue with the information he received with a small nod of his head.

"Recently, and also around three weeks ago," Kurotsuchi continued, "Our monitors have picked up data on high level hollow reiatsu that is the level of a Vasto Lorde in Karakura Town." He paused for a bit at the small murmurs traveling around the room, "Running some tests on the signature it gave off, we found that it was similar to the signature of the Substitute Shinigami, Kurosaki Ichigo, in more ways than one." some, or many, sharp gasps were heard when Mayuri stated this and the occupants of the room started asking him questions.

"You're saying that_ Kurosaki_ is the hollow? That just sounds ridiculous." Hitsugaya Toushiro said in disbelief, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yes. Do not doubt the accuracy of our systems for they barely _ever_ make mistakes. This special case has been double checked multiple times so there are no possibilities for slip-ups or mistakes in this case." Kurotsuchi said with a stern glare in Hitsugaya's direction.

"Why would Ichigo be giving off a hollow's reiatsu?" Jushiro Ukitake questioned, not exactly directing it towards Mayuri but everyone in the room.

"There could and are many reasons for this occurrence but I'm not going to get into those for unscientific minds wouldn't be able to comprehend the details or appreciate the true genius behind the way that they happen."

"What are the other details you received?" Komamura Sajin asked.

"Well, my squad wasn't able to gather too much on the matter because the reiatsu only appeared on our scanners for a short while, about a minute and a half, and then abruptly disappeared, or more like it changed back to normal."

"Back to normal?" Kyouraku Shunsui reiterated.

"I mean that before it was his normal reiatsu that he gave off, and then it changed into that of a hollow before it changed back to normal again."

"Wait, so it's back to normal now?" Hitsugaya said.

"Yes, although, I have seen the current readings on his reiatsu and it had an unusual tinge to it of some of the hollow still left in it that seemed off in a way. The hollow's reiatsu in general was different compared to others and was like it was in a different class that I haven't seem before. It would be superb if I were to be able to get my hands on the specimen and run some tests. Who knows what I could discover from the experiments!"

"If he's the class of a Vasto Lorde, then you're saying he's even more powerful. I wanna fight him if that's the case." Kenpachi said with a maniacal smile at the thought of fighting an extra powerful opponent that could lead to be a very promising fight.

"There will be _none_ of that!" Yamamoto stated as he pounded his staff. Everyone, reluctantly, quieted down and turned their attention towards the Soutaichou. After he waited for them to stop talking, he continued, "We must now discuss what we are going to do about with matter at hand."

"What are you planning on doing, Sir?" Unohana Retsu piped in, asking the question on everyone's mind.

"We are going to investigate this mater more thoroughly before we take action. I am going to send Hitsugaya-Taichou and those who accompanied him when of the patrol for Karakura Town. The Fukutaichou of Squad 6, Abarai Renji, is already stationed there so your team is to meet up with him when you arrive. Gather your team up and depart for the World of the Living effective immediate. I am aware that you and the others have been preparing your squads for the upcoming battle with Aizen, but that will have to be put on hold for now, for this is a more pressing matter that needs to be dealt with before. You will report back if anything of interest comes up."

"Yes Sir!" all Taichous sounded at once.

"Dismissed!" Yamamoto sounded with one final pound of his staff. All the Taichous slowly started filing out pf the meeting room and headed off towards their respective divisions. Toshiro himself was walking, rather quickly, towards his own office and was hurriedly going there to gather his supplies for his recently assigned mission.

"Matsumoto?" he called as he walked. Said Fukutaichou appeared via Shunpo next to her small Taichou and walked beside him.

"Yes, Taichou?" she asked in a playful tone.

"I need you to go to the 11th division and gather up 3rd seat Ikkaku Madarame and 5th seat Ayasegawa Yumichika." He listed off.

"Okay, but why"

"We have been assigned the mission of investigating a highly important matter in Karakura Town. It seems that Kurosaki Ichigo has been emitting a very powerful and high amount of hollow reiatsu lately that is of concern to the Soutaichou. We and our little renegade group that was on patrol there are to investigate and keep an eye on Kurosaki to see if what the monitors are saying is true or not and report on our findings."

"Oh! That sounds like a lot of fun! But what about our preparations for the war?" Matsumoto questioned as they navigated the corridors.

"This takes a higher priority than that so we are to get straight to work. We will leave once all the preparations have been made so please hurry."

"Yes Sir!" Rangiku said with playfulness and excitement lading her tones.

"Urg…this is going to be a _long_ mission." Toshiro mummbled out loud as he watched his Fukutaichou skip always towards the 11th division to fulfill her orders.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Walking in the door and quietly closing it behind them, the two girls entered the house, relieved to be back home and done with school for the day. Something that struck them as odd when they did so was how their brother's shoes were already there before they were even home. He usually didn't arrive back until later, after themselves.

"Huh? Is Ichi-nii home?" Yuzu wondered out loud as she observed the, apparently, very interesting shoes before her.

"I guess." Karin replied with a very bored attitude.

"I'll go check on him to see if he's okay."

"Whatever."

Yuzu made her way up the stairs and dropped her bag off in her and Karin's room before heading towards Ichigo's. Knocking lightly on his wood door, she waited for a reply to tell her to enter. When she got none, she spoke up.

"Ichi-nii? Can I come in?" Yuzu asked. Still, she got no reply from within the room. _'He must be asleep.'_ Deciding on that thought, Yuzu slowly opened the door and peaked her head inside.

She was right in thinking that Ichigo was asleep because he was out cold in his bed with his head buried underneath his pillow. Something didn't seem right though because the parts she could see like his arms and legs looked paler than usual. _'Is he not feeling well?'_ she thought, _'Maybe it's just the lighting in here…Oh! I know! I'll go make him something to eat for when he wakes up. I know he'll enjoy that!'_ she rambled as she walked back downstairs to prepare the food. When she left, Ichigo moaned and rolled over onto his back, showing his shoulder length hair and whiter skin much more clearly.

Soon, after a couple more minutes of tossing in a fit of restless sleep, Ichigo awoke and rose out of his bed. He headed towards his bathroom and, when he looked into the mirror, saw his not-so-normal reflection starring back. It almost made him squeal like a little school girl when he saw it.

Bringing a hand up, he gently touched his face to see if what he was seeing was really true. Sure enough, the reflection did the same, copying every move he made perfectly.

"What the hell..." he whispered to himself and tugged lightly on his long hair. "Where did this come from?"

'_**Ya like my little parting gift from earlier?'**_

"What? You did this to me?" Ichigo screamed back at him.

'_**Who else?'**_ the hollow said back and laughed afterwards like the maniac he was.

"Ichi-nii?" Yuzu called up from downstairs, snapping Ichigo away from his 'conversation', "Is that you? Are you awake?"

"Y-yeah!"

"Okay, I'm making some curry for you that'll be ready in a couple minutes so come down when you're ready!"

"Okay!" he said as he started scrambling around his bathroom. He needed to look at least a _little_ more normal than he was now. Scrimmaging up a pair of scissors, he began chopping away parts of his overgrown hair, letting it fall to the floor in large clumps. Luckily for him, his hair was already unruly and always messy before, so when he was done cutting, it didn't look much different than it normally would have. Only if someone who had known him very well and actually looked, really close, would be able to see some difference in how it looked.

With his hair back to looking normal, he took a look at his paler skin. There was nothing he could really do about that, but if his sisters saw him they would probably get really worried. He decided on putting on a long sleeved shirt that went past his wrists and covered up most of his neck along with long pants that covered all of his legs. That would have to do, even though it was bloody hot out today.

He nervously exited his room and headed downstairs towards his awaiting sisters. He made as little noise as possible so as to not attract attention and choose to sit on the couch where the TV was already on. Karin, reading something at the table that looked like a newspaper, just gave his a small glace to indicate that she realized he was there. No one outside of the family would have been able to tell, but when she looked at him, there was a tinge of concern in her eyes for her brother. Yuzu, however, was not so subtle in showing her concern.

"Ichi-nii, are you feeling okay?" she said when she saw him. She didn't like how he looked; pale, scrunched up on the couch, being even quieter than normal, as if he was trying not to attract any attention _(duh)_. "You don't look too good."

"I'm fine, Yuzu, really. I'm just not feeling a hundred percent yet is all." He reassured her and gave a small smile. That seemed to calm her down a bit before she asked her next question.

"So," she said while going back to cooking, "Why were you home early?"

"I had a headache. It's nothing to worry about though." He shrugged.

"And why are you dressed like that?" Karin piped up, motioning towards his clothes.

"Uhh…I was a little cold so I threw this on." Ichigo forced out the quick excuse.

"In this weather?"

"Yeah."

"Man, you're weird."

"Yeah, so are you."

"It's ready!" Yuzu called and brought the two steaming plates over to them. The curry was very good, just right, like always. Yuzu always was a great cook. A comfortable atmosphere settled over the three as they ate the food/snack. Yuzu talked mostly about their day while Karin added in details in when her sister missed them. Ichigo just listened, commenting occasionally, but overall just content with enjoying his food and his sisters' conversation.

'_**Mmmmmmm… Don't they look tasty.'**_ His hollow said, making Ichigo choke on his bite of food, _**'I bet they would be **_**delicious.'**

"Are you okay, Ichi-nii?" Yuzu asked from across the table at her coughing brother.

"Y-yeah… I just swallowed wrong." He said as his coughs calmed down enough for him to talk. He was about to say something else, until he looked back up at his sisters and laid eyes upon them. The second he saw them, he froze. He could feel a deep, growing hunger rising up inside him. It wasn't the kind that a person normally felt, but instead it was deep, piercing his core, and consuming him whole. The longer he looked at the girls, the more the hunger grew. He _needed_ to get rid of it. _Now._

"What's wrong, Ichigo?" a strong voice said, snapping him out of it for the moment. Isshin walked into the room, just coming back from wherever it was he was at previously. "You okay? You look kind of dazed."

"Uhhh…I-I'll be right back!" Ichigo stammered and jumped out of his seat and ran up the stairs. Slamming the door behind him, he huddled in his bathroom with his eyes clamped shut. Being away from everyone downstairs was helping him a bit with the horrible hunger he was feeling. It didn't go away completely though as he sat there in a corner. The hunger gnawed at him, urging him to eat _something_ that had to do with his family. What, he wasn't sure. But, he could tell that the hunger would subside if he were to just fill it with that something.

'_**Come on. Let me out an' it'll go away.'**_ The hollows voice said, tempting him so much, _**'I'll only take a nibble of them.'**_

"What? No!" Ichigo screamed out. He finally knew what the hunger he was feeling was; the hunger for _souls_. But, he wouldn't give in, not matter how bad it got or how hard his hollow pushed. He wouldn't let that monster get his way. If he did, then he would_ devour_ his family!

'**_You'll give in eventually,_ King_. Ya can't resist it, or me, forever.'_**

Ichigo whimpered as the hunger grew, intensifying the more his hollow talked, overpowering his will like covering it with a heavy blanket. He buried his head in his knees, doing his best to ignore it and not succeeding in that attempt very much.

"Ichigo?" sounded from the other side of the door. It was Rukia, back from school.

"Just leave me alone…" Ichigo said softly to both Rukia and his hollow, although it was too soft for Rukia to actually hear.

"What? I can't hear you."

'_**Haha! Yer gonna hafta speak up~!'**_

"Just shut up!" Ichigo yelled at him, causing Rukia to flinch on the other side of the door at this unexpected response.

Building up her courage, Rukia retorted back, "I'm coming in, whether you want me to or not!" she opened the door and stormed inside. She stopped, mid step, when she laid eyes upon the curled up figure huddled in the corner. She contemplated going over to his side, but wasn't sure if that was the best course of action at the moment.

Ichigo's breath hitched when she entered for his hunger spiked again. He couldn't stay in the same room as her or he might try to attack her, so he did the only thing he could think of at the moment; he ran.

Springing up form his position on the floor, Ichigo bolted for the door. He passed a confused Rukia on his way towards it and barely stopped in front of his night stand, grabbing his badge and hastily separating into his Shinigami form. Stumbling away from his body and out of his window, he ran from his room to get away from those inside. He could hear Rukia's cries behind him, yelling his name and for him to come back, but he didn't stop, he just kept going at a faster pace.

He tripped a couple time over his feet and ended up falling over on the rooftops he was jumping on. Scrambling up after each time, he continued towards his unknown destination. By now, he could sense Rukia far behind him, attempting to catch up to him. Trying to loose her, Ichigo took many abrupt turns throughout the small town. That seemed to work and he soon found himself alone again. Well, not all alone.

Once he slowed down, when he was sure that he had enough distance between them, he noticed where he was; a shopping district, full of people bustling around with their own individually busy schedules. This was even worse than at home.

Thankfully, his will was stronger and he rushed out of that area in frazzled haste and towards the outskirts of town where no one was, just the trees of the forest. Upon finally reaching the area, Ichigo dove into the canopy of trees to escape all those outside. He traveled deep into the wooden forest until he was sure that he was far away from any others.

Finding a small area that looked comfortable, Ichigo settled down there for a wile, trying to calm himself down. All his senses seemed like they were on overdrive while his heart beat sporadically. He wasn't able to hold still at all either so he took to pacing around in a small line as he tried to distract himself from the ever persistent hunger that wouldn't leave him, just like his hollow.

Said hollow also kept jibbing into his thoughts every minute to taunt Ichigo and tell his that it was all pointless. Still, whenever the hollow talked, it made whatever progress Ichigo _did_ make vanish and force him to start all over again. Each time, it was getting harder to resist the urge of both the ever present hunger _and _hollow.

Grabbing his head with one hand and his stomach with the other, Ichigo leaned against a nearby tree. "Please…please…please, stop this." He muttered.

'_**What? Yer not enjoyin' this?'**_

"How could _anyone_ enjoy this?" he snapped back.

'_**Well **_**I**_** am! An' remember how I promised ya that I would make ya suffer?'**_ he asked and Ichigo could feel his smirk growing, _**'I think it's time to get started on tha' for real!'**_

"What?" Ichigo said in a state of panic. Wasn't that what the hollow was doing when he broke free? If that wasn't his definition of torture, than what he was planning was sure to be _far_ worse than before.

"Ichigo!" a voice far away shouted.

"Oh no…Rukia." Ichigo said as he slide down the side of the tree and felt himself being pulled inside for the third time that day.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: Oh~! What's gonna happen to Ichigo? And for that matter, Rukia? . . . I'm so bad! *Evil smile* Please review and tell me what ya think! Again, if you have any suggestions that you think would be _perfect_ for this story, I'll be happy to take them and see what I can do with them! *thumbs up* A Merry Christmas to all of you and enjoy all of the things you got! Thanks for reading~! ^w^**


	11. Bittersweet Reunion

**A/N: Sorry for not updating as fast as I usually do. I really have no excuses, just that I was lazy. You can yell at me all you want later, but for now, just read. I hope it was worth the wait! X3 **

**Disclaimer: Why do I keep needing to say this? Everyone knows that I don't own Bleach! I _do_ own the bleach that cleans your clothes and makes them brighter and whiter though! (Now safe on colors too!)**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Rukia ran through the forest she saw Ichigo run into, determined to find him and find out why he had run away from her for some unknown reason. She dodged trees left and right, swiveling her head as she passed each one like a bobble-head on steroids. She couldn't think straight, not after all the events that just rapidly happened in one day. Fist, she and Ishida find Ichigo passed out in the hall, then his reiatsu spiked very strangely, and now he was running away from her like she was some kind of disease. Finding it a bit difficult to pinpoint Ichigo's exact location, Rukia just kept running as fast as she possible could; hell bent on finding him no matter what. As she ran, many possibilities ran through her head on why Ichigo would be acting like this. None of them, however, added up in the end so she just kept ransacking her brain for the answers she was so desperately seeking.

Ichigo's reiatsu was getting closer now and Rukia picked up her pace, if possible. She heard his voice up ahead yelling something that she couldn't quite make out. "Ichigo!" she yelled in an attempt to get him to call back to indicate his position. She ran into a clearing-like area where she found Ichigo sitting beside a tree. Releasing a breath of relief that she had been holding for quite some time now, she started to walk over to him, slowly at first but then started to quicken her pace when she saw that Ichigo seemed like he was having trouble breathing.

Dropping down to her knees, Rukia placed her hands on his shoulders and began to shake him. "Ichigo! Look at me!" she pleaded when he didn't respond to her touch. Looking into his eyes, she saw how he wasn't even focusing on her or anything else for that matter. Suddenly, Ichigo blinked and focused his eyes on the form before him. Gasping, he developed a panicked expression on his face and frantically scooted backwards from Rukia.

Grabbing his wrist, Rukia forced him to stay put, seizing his movements temporarily. "Would you please stop and tell me what's wrong?" she pleaded in exasperation. Why did he keep running away from her?

"No…get away from me!" he said as he tried to get out of her grip that was surprisingly strong. "You're not safe here!"

"What are you talking about? What's not safe?"

"Me!"

Confusion passed across Rukia's face at this outburst and she relaxed her grip ever so slightly, allowing Ichigo the opportunity to escape from it. He yanked his wrist out and scrambled up onto his feet. Crying out in the form of a yelp, he fell back down to the ground when a new, stronger wave of hunger attacked his body.

'_**You know, if ya let me out, it'll go away.'**_

'_I though I already told you that that'll never happen!'_ he screamed to it in his head.

_**'Meh, it's worth a shot. Well, if ya won't let me out by choice, then I'll just force my way out.'**_

Even when fighting back with all his might, Ichigo couldn't stand up against the power and force his hollow possessed. He soon found himself falling into the blackness that was his soul, disconnected from his body that was left in the hands of his inner monster.

In the outside world, Rukia was desperately shaking Ichigo whose body had gone limp with his eyes rolled back into his head. Looking around them for any other forms of life that could possibly be nearby, Rukia hoped she would find _somebody._ Releasing some of her suppressed reiatsu, Rukia pleaded that someone would notice and come to their aid.

Pressure on her wrist brought her attention back to the unresponsive body lying on the ground. She looked down and saw that Ichigo was grabbing onto her wrist and was _not_ doing so lightly. He kept increasing the amount of pressure on it and was causing it to turn a white color and make it go numb.

"Ichigo…l-let go. That hurts." Rukia said with some uncertainty. What was with his sudden change in behavior?

Using his other had that wasn't holding Rukia, Ichigo pushed his body up, his head facing away from her. A light chuckle escaped his lips that echoed in an odd way, yet still was capable of sending violent shivers down Rukia's spin. His head rolled to the side to face her and looked at her with bone chilling eyes; eyes that were endless, pitch black with an eerie, glowing, golden yellow on top that pierced into her own, starring into her very being and into her soul. Those eyes held nothing but bloodlust that scared the living hell out of her; the exact opposite of what the original owner's held.

"**What do we have here?"** it asked, using Ichigo's voice but with its own twist to it, echoing with another higher pitched voice backing it. That coming out of _his_ mouth just didn't seem right in any way, shape, or form. A bone-white mask was beginning to form on the left side of his face, already covering all of his eye and lower jaw, making its way towards the rest of his face. It showed two black lines, one traveling down and stopping in the middle of his forehead and the other one going through the eyehole and down to his chin. Accompanying them was a large horn developing that pointed forward, similar to that of a bulls. His hair started growing at an incredible rate and his skin was beginning to pale considerably. Faded black markings appeared across the visible areas if is skin not covered by his Shinigami robes.

The more the mask grew, the more hollow his reiatsu felt and more powerful it became. It kept increasing and flowing out in a steady, ever increasing stream. No, forget stream, this was an overpowering waterfall in the middle of a thunderstorm. It pushed down on her from all sides and suffocated her with its oppressive weight.

Leaning in closer, the fake Ichigo starred straight into her eyes; straight into her soul. She couldn't look away from those eyes, no matter how hard she tried. They held her there with some unknown force and seemed as though they captured her gaze, giving no escape to looking anywhere else. But, those eyes seemed to be laughing at her and the attempts she made. Inching closer towards her ear, he whispered chilling words to her.

"**How about ya entertain me fer a while? At least until I get bored of ya."** He said with hints of amusement, **"Now ya should scream, my **_**prey."**_

Before Rukia had a chance to respond, a searing pain traveled up her arm, the one that was in the imposter's grip. Crying out in surprise and pain, Rukia folded inwards towards the source that caused it.

"**Come now, ya should be able to make more noise than that! I wanna hear how much pain yer in. It's not fun to torture yer prey if it doesn't yield enough results."** Forcing her to her feet, at least partially, the hollow lifted her arm, now broken from the wrist down, high above her head, nearly lifting her off the ground. **"Let's see how loud ya can get."**

Bringing his oversized sword off his back, he rested it on her left shoulder and slowly tore open the flesh covering her bones from that point down to the underside of her wrist, scrapping the hard bone beneath. Rukia screams were produced from the act in an earsplitting shriek. The hollow looked at her with an eerie smile widening at the sight of his inflicted pain on her. Her cries of torment reverberated across the forest around them and echoed with the never-ending signs of sheer pain that never let up with each new wave.

"**That's more like it."**

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Four figures stepped out of the Senkaimon, all of them clothed in black with the exception of one with a white haori draped over his shoulders. All of these characters had distinguishing characteristics that were rather…different, such as one was bald-no, sorry, shaved, one had feathers on one of his eyes accompanied by an odd neck accessory like garment, the female had a large bust with wavy blond hair, and the last one had snow white hair and was very short. Together they would, if they were able to be seen by the living, catch a _lot_ of attention by how odd their little group looked compared to those around them.

"Oh, it's been too long since I was in the World of the Living. I really need to catch up on my shopping and get the latest trends." Rangiku said while clapping her hands together.

"No, you won't, Matsumoto. Remember our mission. Our top priority is to observe Kurosaki." Hitsugaya said.

"Ah, but Taichou, I wanted to have some fun first." She complained with a pout.

"No! We need to do our assignment before any of that."

"You know, you really need to relax a bit. You stress yourself out_ way_ too much." Ikkaku said with a smirk directed at the short Taichou.

"Yeah, Ikkaku's right. Maybe if you relaxed then you might grow some more." Rangiku interjected, knowing that would anger the one being accused.

"Why did I have to get stuck with you three?" Toushiro said under his breathe, pinching the bridge of his nose. Letting out a large sigh, he turned back to his group. "We should get to work, starting out by informing Abarai of what we need to do. Then we can locate Kurosaki and begin investigating from there."

"What an uncanny way to approach this. It's not elegant or beautiful in the least bit." Yumichika said nonchalantly with a flick of his hair.

"Speak of the devil, here comes Renji now." Rangiku pointed out as a mass of pointed red hair started to approach them. In no time at all, he was in front of the group with a questioning look.

"Hey guys. What are you all doing here?" he asked and crossed his arms lightly in front of this chest.

"Hey Renji!" Rangiku shouted and slung an arm around his shoulder. "How have you been?"

"Um…fine, I guess."

"Yeah? Have you been doing anything interesting like going to parties or bars?"

"Um, no…I've been busy with hollow patrol lately. And when would I ever go to a party anyways? It's not like I would go anyways 'cause no humans would even be able to invite me!"

"Ah lighten up, man! At least tell me there are some good bars around here. I could really use some sake." Ikkaku said.

"Yes." Yumichika said, "I could go for a Margarita or Bloody Marry. I've heard that those drinks are quite popular among the humans.

"I've beard that they especially like this drink called Beer." Rangiku said.

"Yeah, but," Renji said, "It's coffee that's really popular. I've had it too and it's not that bad."

"Really? What does that taste like?" Rangiku questioned.

"It tastes really weird at first and almost bad, but once you've had it, you can't get enough of it. It's so addicting and gives you a lot of energy too."

"I'd like to try that. Later, we should all go to a bar and get some." Ikkaku suggested.

"That sounds like fun! But what about Shiro-chan?" Matsumoto teased, knowing the nickname would get on Toushiro's nerves. "He's too young to get into one of those so I guess we'll just have to have fun without him."

"Will all of you please just _shut up?_ We have a mission to do you know." Toushiro said, is patience, or what little he had left, was quickly diminishing.

"Oh yeah. What is this mission of your anyways?" Renji asked, finally getting back on topic.

Quickly explaining their whole situation and mission, Toushiro informed Renji about what they were to do. When done explaining, Renji didn't seem all that shocked at what he had just been told. He actually seemed a bit nervous about something.

"I've kinda suspected something like this was going on, but wasn't completely positive. Earlier today, I saw Ichigo walking home and somehow he wasn't acting normal. I followed him and he, all of the sudden, started emitting very strong and powerful hollow reiatsu. It stopped quickly though so I didn't know what to make of the whole thing."

"Well, that confirms what the scanners said then. We should go find him and keep an eye on him before anything else happens." Hitsugaya ordered as the four all nodded in agreement before jumping off. No sooner had they done that when Rukia's reiatsu spiked and a highly oppressive force dropped on their shoulders. It gave off a sense of familiarity to everyone except Renji, who now knew it quite well.

"That's Ichigo." He stated and received the shocked gasps from everyone.

"Come on. He's near the forest. We can make it there quickly before anything happens hopefully." Toushiro said.

Quickly making their way to the forest, using Shunpo for most of the way, the group hastily rushed to the source of the hollow-like reiatsu that belonged to Ichigo. A scream resounded towards them that closely resembled Rukia'a own and caused them all to run even faster. Renji was running ahead of everyone else, seeing how that person screaming was Rukia, the person who was like his own sister.

Coming into the clearing that housed the two people being sought after, they came in on the sight of Ichigo, or what resembled Ichigo, licking at a huge gash on Rukia's arm, using his tongue to create a clean path that was free of blood; at least for a moment. He licked his lips and shivers could be seen running across his body. He was still holding Rukia up by her arm, which was twisted at an odd angle, and she looked to be in an extreme amount of pain and unable to move.

Gazing over to the newly arrived group, who were, at the moment, frozen to the spot at seeing the scene before them, the hollow Ichigo gave them a chilling smile, one that showed the blood and mask covering his face. The group was broken out of their stupor by him going back to the bleeding mass in his hands, opening his mouth, and biting down on the helpless girl's arm, ripping off a large chunk of it with the teeth of his mask.

Jumping straight into action, Toushiro unsheathed his sword, immediately releasing it into its Shikai state, and attacked the thing Ichigo had become. His first priority was to get it away from Rukia so that his group could take her away to a safer location. Then, he would be able to deal with the wild beast in front of him.

Bringing his sword down in an overhead arch, Hitsugaya managed to get it to release its grip on Rukia and forced it to jump backwards, unless he would be hit by the sword and ice dragon coming out of it. Growling as it jumped, the hollow glared at the short Shinigami in front of him who just separated him from his meal.

Swallowing the flesh in his mouth, the hollow started to chuckle, which turned into a full blown laugh. Starring incredulously at the creature, the group hesitantly took a step backwards.

"What so funny, Kurosaki?" Toushiro asked, getting slightly annoyed by his actions.

Abruptly stopping his laughter, the hollow glared darkly at Hitsugaya. **"I am **_**not**_** Ichigo. That fool is nothing compared to me!"**

"Than who or what, pray tell, are you?"

"**I myself don't have a name. I've already told that to countless people, but it seems like I have to keep telling ya idiots! An' for what I am, I'm a hollow. If ya can't figure that out my the mask and reiatsu, then yer even more stupid than I though'."**

"Why you-"

"B-but… I thought Ichigo… suppressed you… already." Rukia said in between gasps. She sat on the sidelines, being brought there by Renji and Matsumoto when 'Ichigo' let her go. Rangiku was busy trying to heal Rukia's severely damaged arms while Renji fumed from the sidelines at the scene before them.

"**He did, but now, as you can see, the bonds he had on me were broken as of recently. You were there when that happened."** He pointed out. This new information confused Rukia at first, but after thinking about it for a short time, realization dawned on her and she started sputtering out nonsense.

"B-but I thought… we saw… how can… but… when did you… you-"

"**Oh shut up!"** he screamed which got her to do just that.** "Now,"** he said, turning back around to face the white haired Shinigami, **"Are you goin' ta move or am I goin' ta hafta take her back by force?"**

"I'm not moving. You're going to have to go through me to get to Rukia. Even if you are using Kurosaki's body, I won't go easy on you." Finalizing his statement, Toushiro took a defensive stance in between Rukia and the hollow. This only got a sick, short laugh out of the impersonator.

"**Fine, but I don't think you'll be a challenge fer me, shorty."** Moving faster than any of them could see, the hollow Ichigo moved right in front of Hitsugaya who barely brought his sword up in time to block the strike. The power behind it was incredible. He was barely even able to keep his sword in place while fighting against it. Summoning up his strength, Toushiro somehow managed to push the other's blade off and skidded backwards from his own force. The hollow though hadn't even moved from his spot. The only difference was the amused look on his face.

"Why do you even want Rukia?" he asked, trying to distract the thing until the others could get Rukia safely away, if they didn't start fighting themselves.

"**Why? Isn't it obvious? I'm a hollow, and hollow need to eat. Ya took away my meal an' I'm trying ta get it back."** He answered.

Letting out a mocking sigh, the hollow swung his blade to rest on his shoulders as he gazed lazily at the Taichou. **"But, yer beginnin' ta bore me, so I'll just get rid of ya."**

"Taichou!" Rangiku yelled as the giant clever impaled itself in his gut. He hadn't even seen the hollow move, still looking at his after image before him. Gasping and coughing up blood, he rested his hands lighting on the blade before he was kicked off of it and crumpled to the ground.

Before Rangiku could even get up to try to assist her downed Taichou, she found a sword pressed against her throat, forcing her to stay still.

"**Don't even think about it."**a dark voice whispered behind her. _'When did he even…'_ not even able to finish that thought, Rukia was dragged out of her protective grip, Shunpoed across the clearing, and hoisted up by her throat. **"Now, where were we?"**

Unable to respond, Rukia just struggled in his grasp to try to find some means of escape. A hand was soon found in her abdomen and she let out an agonizing scream.

"Hoero, Zabimaru!" Renji's battle cry sounded as his sword transformed, already rapidly approaching the monster holding Rukia.

Before the jagged blade made contact, a chilling smile was donned on Rukia's attacker's face. Time seemed to slow down at that moment and everything around the pair moved as if in slow motion.

"**Until next time."** He whispered right before his mask cracked and shattered, revealing the exhausted looking teen beneath. He looked bewildered at fist, but then regained his bearings. Feeling something wet on his hand, he looked down and saw it embedded in the flesh of none other than Rukia.

"I-Ichigo?" said girl forced out, seeing how her friend had regained control. At that moment, time went back to normal and Renji's Zanpakuto sliced through the air and into the back of a certain orange headed Shinigami. Dropping Rukia, Ichigo let out a muffled yell that soon died off.

"R-Ru…ki…a." Ichigo said as his eyes dropped and his body fell forwards onto the ground, blood pooling out of him like a waterfall.

"Ichigo!" that was the last thing he heard. He didn't really want to hear more either. _He_ had caused Rukia to suffer; caused her pain. _He_ was the reason that she was hurt, even though he had sworn to protect her with all of his worth. He was now living his nightmare that had happened not too long ago. It was becoming a reality,_ his _reality. And now, he was the cause of everyone's suffering.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: Hooray! Another chapter done! Sad to say that this took me over a week to write, even though it's not as long as my other ones…yeah. I hope that weird time thing at the end didn't throw anyone off. If it helps, it's basically like when you get that feeling that times slowing down when it's really not... ****On another note, please, _please_, review! That stuff is seriously like my crack! The more I get, the more I write, and that's not a joke. So if you want the next chapter soon, REVIEW! Thanks for reading and a late happy New Year's! ^w^**


	12. Unknown Plans

**A/N: FORGIVE ME! I'm so sorry for making you guys wait so long for this chapter and I really don't deserve all the reviews and junk that you guys are kind enough to give me. I've been having horrible writer's block and that's the reason that it's so late. I'm going to stop talking now so you guys can actually read this long awaited chapter.**

**Renuncia: Yo no soy dueno Bleach**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

"Ichigo!" Rukia screamed when she saw him fall to the cold ground, Renji's sword deeply imbedded in his back. When his mask broke, he had no idea what was happening around him, therefore no time to avoid the attack. The jagged tip of Renji's sword was forcefully removed by its owner with some resistance from the body, creating a sickly sound as it was dragged out, somewhat like squeezing a sponge.

Looking down on the prone, bleeding form, Renji contemplated what his next move would be since it seemed like it wasn't going to be moving for a while. Before he had come to a decision, a badly wounded Rukia was found hovering over the body, shielding it from any harm.

"Get away from him, Rukia!" Renji yelled, unsure if it was really down or just feigning. He did _not_ want that thing to hurt her any more than she already was.

"No, Renji! I won't let you hurt Ichigo anymore!" she screamed back, her voice raspy from screaming so much.

"That's not Ichigo. Didn't you see what that hollow did?" he replied, trying to use a calmer voice so as to not agitate her anymore than she already was.

"Yes, but the mask broke. The hollow isn't controlling him right now _or _when you stabbed him in the back!" proceeding her argument, Rukia started coughing up blood from the wound in her stomach. Grabbing it with her broken hand, now somewhat healed thanks to Matsumoto, she tried to stop the violent coughs racking her body.

Renji immediately dropped down beside her, stabilizing her by putting his hands on her shoulders. "We need to get you to Kisuke's; you've lost too much blood already." He said, examining her other wounds as well. Besides the one in her abdomen, she had both arms severely damaged too, the left worse than the right. Although the right was still badly broken, it was in better shape than its parallel that had a deep gash traveling from the shoulder to the underside of her wrist, not mention the large chunk of it ripped out near the shoulder.

Attempting to pick her up, Renji was head butted away, hard. "I'm not going anywhere… until Ichigo is taken care of." Rukia said defiantly as Renji staggered back, grabbing onto his throbbing, reddening head that was starting to match his hair.

"Well what do you want _me_ to do about it?" he yelled back, getting quite pissed now.

"I think I may be able to help." A sly voice said from behind them. Emerging from the covering the trees provided, a man clad in green stepped forth wearing a green and white striped hat perching precariously atop his head shadowing his eyes, giving him a mysterious, devious look. Of course Urahara would be there.

Walking over to the group on the ground, taking his time, Urahara made his way beside them, gently motioning for Rukia to move aside to examine the body beneath her.

"How long have you been here, Kisuke?" Renji asked as he watched the man.

"Oh, not too long!" he replied with his normal cheerful attitude, waving his hand to dismiss the comment. But I have been watching long enough to know that you and Rukia need to work on communicating better between yourselves.

"What?" Both accused said at the same time. "We communicate just fine." Renji protested with a grumble.

"If you say so." Urahara said with a grin and turned back to Ichigo. His smile slowly dropped, showing a serious expression donned on his face. He promptly picked Ichigo up in his arms and stood up quickly, careful with his movements so as not to jostle the boy he was carrying.

"Oi! What are you doing?" Ikkaku asked from behind Rukia, whose breath was becoming more labored.

Looking over to him, Urahara responded without a joking tone for once, "His wounds are more serious than I thought and he needs immediate treatment. Abarai-san, get Kuchiki-san and Hitsugaya-san to my shop quickly for their wounds need to be healed too."

"Uh, right." Renji responded, picking up Rukia who didn't fight against it this time. Rangiku, a little ways off from everyone else with Yumichika following close behind, walked over to them with Toushiro on her back, nodding to those present.

Using shunpo, Urahara disappeared from sight, leaving everyone else to follow in the same matter. It only took them a couple minutes at the most for them to reach the small shop and enter inside. Kisuke walked at a brisk pass when going inside and made his way to the back of the shop to place Ichigo in one of the rooms, never stopping, even for a moment, as he made his way there.

Rangiku and Renji weren't too far behind, carrying an injured person each, and put them both in a room in the same hallway. They would have put them in the same room as Ichigo, but after what they just witnessed, they didn't want to risk them with the possibility of him attacking again.

Ikkaku and Yumichika stayed behind and sat around the small table occupying a different room while everyone else went to work.

After getting everyone situated in their respected rooms, Urahara walked in the one Rukia and Toushiro were in and started checking the extent of the damage inflicted and used Kido to heal the surface of the wounds, just enough to get the bleeding to stop and for it to close up most of the way. Standing up, he let out a short, slightly comical sigh and turned towards the others in the room.

"I've got their conditions stabilized, but Tessai is going to have to do the rest later because he's busy at the moment. I'll go get some bandages to patch them up."

"Wait," Renji said as Urahara started for the door, "Why can't Tessai come now?"

"Because, my dear fukutaichou, he's busy healing Ichigo and taking care of the wounds you gave him." Kisuke replied in his ever so happy manner. "It was far worse than it looked and it could have killed him if you aimed your strike just slightly more to the left. It was only about three centimeters away from his heart and nearly pierced his lungs as well."

"Oh…" Renji started to feel guilty at this news.

"How long until he's done?" Rangiku questioned, growing anxious.

"He should be done here shortly." Kisuke said as he walked back out the door. Not even a minute later he returned with the bandages he spoke of previously and started wrapping them on the injuries of the people before him. Sitting down beside him, Rangiku and Renji helped out as best they could.

Finally finishing, they sat back and shared the moment of awkward silence that only Urahara didn't seem to mind. Breaking it, Renji spoke the question that had been plaguing him for some time.

"Urahara, what the hell is going on with Ichigo?"

Slightly loosing his cheerful façade, Urahara lightly smiled and looked sadly at the two conscious Shinigami occupying the room along with him.

"I truly don't know the full extent of the situation to give you a complete answer. But, what I do know is that it has something to do with his inner hollow. If it wasn't, then I don't know how I would explain the odd transformation to his physical features, personality, and reiatsu. I just really don't know what's going on and it perturbs me about how little I know."

"That would explain why he was acting so strangely all of the sudden and earlier today. But why now? What brought this up?" Renji pondered.

"Again, I'm not sure on that answer, but I have some theories that I'm going through now. It would be pointless to go through them at the moment, so we won't discuss it."

"Yeah, alright."

"What are we going to do now?" Rangiku inquired.

"All we can do is wait and see what happens next." With that final statement in the air, Urahara stood and ushered the two out of the room. He promptly shoved them into two different rooms adjacent to the room they were previously in and showed them the beds lying on the floor.

"Now get some rest. It's already dark out and you have all had a very full day. You need to be well rested so you don't burn yourselves out later. I'll take care of the others so you don't need to worry about them." Urahara more or less demanded, closing the doors behind him with a quick snap.

Closing is eyes briefly, Urahara let out a long sigh before beginning his short journey towards the area where Tessai was healing the unpredictable and overall confusing Ichigo. His loyal right hand man was just wrapping up the finishing touches to the healing process he was performing prior to his entry and sat back with a less than satisfactory 'huff' as he looked at his work.

Leaning against a nearby wall and looking down at the very different looking teen** [1]**, Kisuke didn't even have to ask his question and received a response anyways.

"The major damage is taken care of, but I wasn't able to take care of the deeper forms of it. Even with one of my higher level Kido's, it didn't work. It was as if his body was rejecting it. Also, his reiatsu levels have been much lower than normal too and I haven't been able to increase those either, coming across the same problem as before. Do you know why this is occurring, Boss?"

"Not particularly, just that his hollow must be responsible in more ways than one. That's the only explanation I can come up with." He ran a hand up to his hat and another through his hair, "Please keep an eye on him for a while if you could after taking care of the others. I need to check on some things."

"Yes, Boss." Nodding his thanks, Urahara left the, quite frankly, ominous room and made his way to were his research material was located; off to see if he could figure some things out to make any lick of sense out of all of it.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The next day

Gathered around the small, low lying table that somehow managed to fit more than ten people at a time around its edges, Shinigami, shop owners, and others of the like sat down and were currently enjoying a favorably sweet cup of tea kindly brewed by the muscular man in an apron near them, who was currently at a counter fiddling with something that resembled a fish in a frying pan.

Munching on the fried eggs and white rice so kindly provided for them, all present silently ate their own food, even if it tasted a little… off** [2]**.

Striding into the room with the presence of dark circles painted under his eyes, Urahara took a seat and a cup of tea, leaving everyone residing there to draw their eyes upon his less than cheery form, staring, noticeable in deep thought, into his cup and its swirling contents.

Loudly clearing is throat, Renji caught the unusually silent shop keeper's attention, making him look up. "Oh, sorry about that," he said with his normal grin, rubbing the back of his head, "I was just thinking about some things." He then gained his distant look back again which just didn't seem right on his features.

Snapping his head back up, he looked towards Toushiro who was sitting across the table from him, "How are you feeling?" since the little 'incident' the day before, Toushiro and Rukia had been more-or-less healed and were now recovering surprisingly quickly. Also, Ikkaku and Yumichika had left the store and went out to patrol the town for hollows, preferring that than sitting there doing nothing.

"I'm fine," Hitsugaya responded in an annoyed tone, "But right now I want some answers, so start talking."

"My, my. So harsh Hitsugaya-kun."

"I think we'd all like some answers, Urahara." Rukia said seriously, her Kuchiki demeanor covering her face, making her true emotions unreadable and unknown to everyone else.

"Alright," Urahara said with a sigh. Proceeding to tell the group all that he knew, including Ichigo's inner hollow, Kisuke explained the situation.

"That does explain things." Renji concluded, "But it still doesn't explain why or how he's gotten loose now."

Shifting in her seat, Rukia cleared her throat and gained everyone's attention. "Well, his hollow did tell me how… in a way." She said nervously. Noticing how no one else was speaking, she continued, "He said that I was there when he broke free. I think that what he means by that is when Ichigo was sick."

"Oh! So that's how he did it!" Urahara said while hitting his fist into his open palm.

"Huh? I'm still confused." Renji said.

"I'll explain it to you three later. For now we need to figure out what we're going to do with Ichigo now."

"Well, we can't just let him walk around unsupervised; he could loose control and hurt someone again." Toushiro stated, "So we should have someone watching him at all times for the moment."

"Yeah, but what about his hollow? We need to figure out what to do about him." Renji said.

"True. Hmm…" Urahara said as he placed a hand on his chin.

Standing up, Rukia started heading for the back doorway.

"Oi, where are you going Rukia?" Renji questioned.

"I'm going to go check on Ichigo." Was all she said before leaving the room.

The remaining people still in the room kept discussing what they should do, not really coming to an agreement between them.

Not long after Rukia left, they all heard the sound of rushing footsteps quickly approaching their location. In mere seconds, Rukia burst through the door, almost tearing it off in the process, and faced the room's occupants with a panic ridden expression. She spoke two simple words that made everyone's face drop.

"He's gone!"

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**[1] Ichigo still has his semi-transformed looks on him like his hair being longer and paler skin.**

**[2] In case you're not aware, Tessai is not known for his cooking in good ways. He has a way of making food horrible, kinda like Orihime in a sense, but not as bad.**

**A/N: And that's it for this chapter. Again, I'm so sorry for the wait, but if it makes you feel any better, I have the next two chapters already planned out so they should be posted rather quickly so that's some good news. Also, I really have to thank everyone who was patient enough to wait this long and also thank all those who have recently reviewed and favorited/alerted this story. I love you all! *squeeze***

**The reason that Ikkaku and Yumichika aren't really in this one is because...well, I really didn't know what to do with them so I just kinda sent them away. Hehe, sorry.**

**UPDATE/NOTICE:**** Okay, so recently I've made a deviantart account and posted some of the junk I've done there. This can be found on my newly updated profile (nothing's really new though). Also, I'm a Beta-reader now so if anyone out there needs one or help with a story, I'd be happy to help! ^^**

**I think that's it, so I'll see you all later! *Gin pose and waves***


	13. Where to now?

**A/N: I forgot to say last chapter, but I did change the summary so that it actually _is_ a real summary. Sorry if that confused you. Enjoy~!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. If I did, then it would be much more violent and Hichigo would appear _far_ more often.**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

"What? ! What do you mean he's gone?" Renji asked in a panicked tone.

"I mean that when I checked his room, there was no one in there! I even checked the other rooms in the hall and he's in none of them!" Rukia replied back in feverous haste.

"We need to go find him." Toushiro said with authority, not wasting any time, "We'll split up into two groups, me with Rangiku and Renji with Rukia. Search the city for him and report back in if you find anything. If you run into any trouble, flare your reiatsu. We'll go find Madarame and Ayasegawa and get them searching as well."

"Yes sir!" all addressed sounded, immediately heading for the door and jumping into their own directions.

"I hope they can find him," Urahara said solemnly, "He's unpredictable as he is now and even I don't know what's going to happen."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

'_Where is he? Where is he? Where is he!'_ Rukia thought as her head snapped from one place to another, looking anywhere that Ichigo could possibly be. They had only been searching for about ten minutes without any success, but that was far too long in Rukia's opinion. There was no telling if Ichigo was in trouble or not, and Rukia couldn't bare the thought of him being in an even worse situation that he was already.

What bugged her was that they, both her and Renji, couldn't get a firm lock on Ichigo's reiatsu. It seemed as though it was everywhere at once, albeit weak. It was like this as well when he ran into the forest too. Was that just a coincidence, or did that mean or connect in some way?

"Maybe he's near the park or forest again." Renji suggested.

"Yeah, let's go check over there." Rukia replied back. Right now, she was willing to look anywhere.

They both used quick shunpos and traveled to their prediscussed destination. Rukia was hoping beyond hope that that would be the location they would find Ichigo at. Why had he even left in the first place? What was he thinking? Why couldn't he just trust them and stay…

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Toushiro and Rangiku sped out, going straight towards the locations of Ikkaku and Yumichika, who were elsewhere in the town. Never once did Toushiro and his carefree fukutaichou stop looking for the missing bright haired teen the whole way. They always had their eyes open and senses extended to detect anything from Ichigo or their comrades.

They were coming closer on Ikkaku and Yumichika's signatures now, and sped up their pace, quickly shunpoing across building tops. When they came to the source of their reiatsu… Well, let's just say that it wasn't what they expected to find.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Gulping down another large mouthful of the sweet, sweet nectar known as beer, Ikkaku let out a satisfied breath of air as he set the drink down on the table with a loud 'thud'.

"Man, this beer drink really is good!" he said and took another swig from the bottle.

"Indeed, but I prefer this Maitai **[1]** beverage over that." Yumichika stated, gingerly sipping his own drink.

"Humans can really make some good drinks!"

Both Shinigami were at a popular bar drinking a wide variety of alcoholic drinks. Of course, they were in gigais, hence why they were able to purchase the drinks in the first place. They had been there for a good half hour now and had arrived there because they had gotten bored of hollow patrol with absolutely nothing happening. What they weren't aware of though was that the bar they were at also functioned as a strip club. This can't end well.

_(For those concerned, no, there will not be anything wrong in that sense with the next few paragraphs like graphic scenes or anything like that. So have no fear and read ahead.)_

The lights dimmed and more colorful ones started dancing across the entire place in random patterns. An announcer's voice sounded from basically every direction, saying something unclear and incoherent. But it apparently was good because a bunch of the guys in the bar, which included basically every person, started getting really excited and were making their way towards a stage.

"What the hell?" Ikkaku said, confused at everything going on around them.

"This is rather strange," Yumichika stated, looked around at everything, "I wonder what's got everyone so riled up?"

"Hey look, some girl's coming out onto the stage."

"What could she be doing?"

"I don't know, but I'm liking her clothes."

Both of their faces adopted shocked and panicked expressions when the girl on the stage started to dance around and take off her clothes, starting with her small, tight top.

"Wh-what is she doing? !" Ikkaku yelled. Sure he liked hot girls, but he didn't want them to just start stripping their clothes off like that. He wasn't a pervert; he had morals on this kind of stuff.

"Maybe we should leave." Yumichika suggested nervously. He was in the same boat as Ikkaku. And for the record, no, he is not gay, just into beautiful things. This was not his definition of beautiful. This was just wrong.

Of course, to make matters worse, in walks Hitsugaya with Matsumoto tailing him, a look of pure annoyance and anger on his face at seeing two of his subordinates there. That look changed _very_ quickly when he saw what the commotion was. His face turned beat red and he quickly turned away, walking briskly out the door. Thankfully, no one there could see him, a boy looking to be the age of eleven, twelve, walking in a stripper club, thanks to his Shinigami form.

Rangiku, laughing the whole time, walked over to them instead, and told them to come with her outside to talk out there. They complied surprisingly quickly.

Once outside, the two were faced with the, most likely, mentally scarred Taichou who was now massaging his eyes with his thumb and index finger, probably trying to rid himself of the scene he just witnessed that was now burned into his eyes.

"We ca-" Ikkaku started, but was cut off when the embarrassed Taichou put his hand up.

"I don't even want to hear it. You can explain yourself later, but right now we have a situation." Their short superior said, "Kurosaki is missing."

"What? I thought you guys were watching him." The shocked Ikkaku said.

"Well, we were, but he's gone now. We need to search for him, so you two need to help. The more we get, the better chances we have of finding him."

"Right. At least this is something better to do than hollow patrol." Stated Ikkaku.

"You two head west, we'll go north. Renji and Rukia already headed east. Report in if anything comes up."

"Sure thing. I just hope that I can get al little fighting action this time." Smirking in anticipation, Ikkaku and Yumichika popped a soul candy in their mouths and flashed off.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Staggering along the basically empty streets of Karakura Town, a figure clothed in heavy black robes walked along, close to the building sides and occasionally leaning in them for support. His breathing was very heavy and labored, uneven with each inhale and shaking with every out hale.

He didn't know where he was going; all he did know was that he couldn't stay where he was at previously. Therefore, he kept going, using what little energy he had on his task. By now, he was stating to wear out, and leaned against the wall near him once again to give himself a small break.

How had he gotten there in the first place?

Earlier that morning

_Endless screaming, pounding his ears. It wouldn't stop; he couldn't make it go away. A woman's voice was pleading as they screamed for it to stop, for the pain to go away. Wait. He recognized that voice. No. It can't be. No. No. NO!_

Bolting upright from the floor, Ichigo gasped for air. He immediately slumped down against the mat again as pain ransacked his body, forcing him to cease his movements. Once the initial waves of pain subsided, he managed to look around the room to try and figure out where he was. Seeing the blurry shapes of sliding doors and tatami mats, he instantly knew where he was; Urahara's shop.

His breathing started to speed up as he processed this new information along with what he already knew. Why and how did he get here? And what happened to everyone else after he blacked out?

Hearing muffled voice through the walls, Ichigo strained his ears to listen to them, soon identifying them as his friends, including Urahara. He let out a small sigh of relief to find that they were alive and seemingly okay, earning him another dose of pain to erupt from is chest and back. How did he get hurt again?

'_**Ya should already know the answer to that.'**_

He cringed at that voice; it reminded him of everything that had transpired. Now that he thought about it, couldn't his hollow take control whenever he wanted now basically? If that was in fact the case, then…

'_**Oh ya better believe it is! I can take over whenever I please now!' **_ He could practically feel the hollow grinning madly in his head.

'_I need to get out of here!'_ he thought frantically. He got up, slower this time so as not to aggravate his wounds any farther, and made his way over to Zangetsu who was leaning in a corner. There was no way in hell he was going to go anywhere without his trusted partner. First putting on the red chain over his shoulders, and shihakusho top that looked fairly new, that was lying next to his oversized zanpakuto, he then placed the sword on his back and headed for the sliding door.

He carefully opened it, sure to not make any noise, and silently headed for the back door. He finally arrived outside and was greeted by the first rays of the morning sun. Now all he had to do as figure out what to do now.

Before he had enough time to think on the subject, the hunger from previously encased him and left him kneeling on the ground. His hollow's voice reverberated trough his skull, laughing and mocking him with every passing second.

Crawling back up into a standing position, a shaky one at that, Ichigo started staggering away from the quant shop filled with all those he loved. He was wincing with each step now, both from the pain getting gradually worse and from the hunger spreading from his core, making it hard to focus on anything else.

Breaking out into an empty street, he started heading in a random direction; any one was fine, as long as it took him away, far away. Thankfully, the hunger was started to die down, but now the pain was starting to become horribly unbearable. All he wanted to do was stop and lay down right where he was.

To make matters worse, he tripped over a large crack in the road and landed painfully on his side, opening his wound in the process. Grunting in pain, he lifted his arms to his sides and tried to push himself up, only managing to get just over halfway before he crumpled back over and started coughing up a large quantity of blood. The coughing also made the pain much worse, causing his body to visibly shake in pain.

He stayed like that for many minutes before it calmed down, finally giving him a break. Dragging himself over to the wall of an abandoned warehouse, Ichigo propped himself against it and tried to steady his breathing which just wouldn't slow down. He didn't know how long he stayed like that, but he knew that he couldn't stay there forever. He needed to get moving again.

Somehow managing to get back up onto his feet with the help of the wall, Ichigo began walking once more.

Present

It was starting to get brighter now and more people were beginning to come out onto the street for their various activities. Trying to avoid the ones who were walking in his path, he dodged and weaved sluggishly, but occasionally actually knocked into some of them who then proceeded to literally freak out and hyperventilate that they just hit something that wasn't there. The whole sight was really rather humorous.

He kept trudging forward, no matter how tired he was. A small park was coming into view now, empty except for the adults walking by it. Finding a vacant bench, he sat down there, arms wrapped around is legs in a futile attempt to get comfortable.

What was he going to do now? He didn't have anywhere to go without the fear of hurting, or more than likely killing someone. The monster inside him could pounce at any time and just go on a killing rampage. He needed to do _something_, but what?

Some kids, along with their parents, were coming into the park now. The parents let them go off and have some fun playing on the various accessories the park provided for entertainment. After some time, the parents started coming over to where he was for a break, so Ichigo was forced to get up and instead lean against a tree for support.

His vision was starting to fail him and a killer headache was creeping up on him. He squeezed his eyes together and actually lost his balance for a few seconds, causing him to slip off the tree and once more onto the ground.

Blood spilled out of his mouth from the corners, leaving a metallic taste on his tongue. His eyes were still shut, tighter now, and stayed so.

While he laid there, an idea suddenly struck him, one that he hoped wondered why he hadn't thought of before. Dragging himself back up with much effort, he headed back in the direction of the city.

He had new determination now and also new hope that he prayed he didn't carry in vane.

He knew where he was going now.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**[1] Maitai is a type of alcoholic drink that is more fruity and sweet in taste. If you're wondering how I know this, I just asked my parents. I'm too young to drink sadly. XD**

**A/N: I just really have to say thanks for everyone who's reviewed. They really help me in my writing and help give me ideas as to what to do next. Also, I'm not sure if I should change the rating of this, 'cause it is a pretty gruesome fic… what do you guys think? And again, if you guys have any ideas and/or suggestions, feel free to tell me about them! **

**Oh! I almost forgot. I have some other ideas for stories that I'm going to be posting on my profile. I'm going to be getting around to them later after I finish this one (whenever that is). Thanks for reading, and review please~! Peace out! ^w^**


	14. Hot on the Trail

**A/N: This chapter is very late, I know, but I have been very sick lately with food poisoning, the flu, bad fevers, and a bunch of other crap all in one week! Plus, school just plain sucks. I don't think I need to say more than that. Please have mercy on this poor writer! **

**Disclaimer: Bleach, I don't own :( **

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Their feet touched down on the lush grass that blanketed the whole park in a flowing wave of green blades. With every whisper of the wind, the individual leaves danced in a graceful, soothing rhythm as they responded to the wind's words. The dew coating them glinted and reflected the sun's welcoming rays, giving the appearance of liquid diamonds that slowly slid down their length, leaving a shinning trail in their paths. Small bugs, practically invisible to most, crawled up and down the waking plants, exploring their surfaces for various necessities that they required to survive in their giant and vast world.

Parents and children, young and old, slowly filled this area with their presence and screams of happiness. The gleeful kids pranced about with each other in one of their games and ran as if on clouds with their feet barely making contact with the ground before propelling back off into the air again. The parents watched from the sidelines with loving smiles on their faces and that same love filling their eyes for each other; their spouse, life partner, one and only love. Many of these couples would edge closer to one another until they touched, whether in the forms of leaning against each other or holding hands, and just stayed like that; not needing to say any words for nothing needed to be said in those moments of time to express their feelings towards one another.

All of these details, both the small, basically insignificant ones and also the large, more apparent ones, went completely unnoticed to the two identically clothed figures as they met with the ground. They searched their surrounding viciously, scouring for one single person. Their eyes took apart everything around them, trying to see if there were any signs of him anywhere near by or even in the area at all.

"I'll go search over here," Rukia said, pointing herself off to the left.

"Right!" Renji responded, directing himself in the opposite direction.

Rukia extended her senses, but still kept her focus on her surroundings. Still nothing. Not one single sign of the orange headed teen could be found_ anywhere._ Why couldn't they find anything? It was almost like he just disappeared. What if something horrible happened to him and he needed help? If he did, then how were they supposed to find him _to_ help him? What if-

"Hey Rukia!" Renji called from across the clearing, "Come over here, I found something!"

Rukia quickly made her way over to her fellow comrade, curious to what he had been able to find in his search. She arrived at his location fast and halted beside the red head, looking around for anything. She found what Renji was talking about when he pointed to a bench beside them. The simple object was drenched in Ichigo's reiatsu, leaving a thick coating over the entire surface of it. There was a trail leading away from the bench that traveled over to a nearby tree. It was there that they found a small pile of blood underneath. This only caused Rukia's concern and worry to elevate to new levels.

"Ichigo…" she whispered. She took a loser look at the reiatsu residue and discovered that a path could be found leading away from the tree and back into the city. Finally, something to help them in their search.

"Come on, Renji!" Rukia ordered as she took off, following the frail left for them. Maybe they did have some hope after all.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Pain. That was all he could comprehend at the moment. That one, simple, elementary word was all he could focus on besides the thought of just putting one foot in front of the other. Even that thought was becoming difficult and clouded due to the pain overriding his senses like a blaring alarm going off in his head.

Every breath felt as if his chest and lungs were being pulled apart and then released, being stretched like a balloon, and kept repeating over and over. He could feel blood starting to seep into his lungs, making it sound like he was trying to inhale with water in his mouth.

He could barely tell where he was going now, his vision was blurry and unclear, but he just kept trudging forward with his destination in mind. He periodically ran into walls and other objects because of this disability too, but by now, his senses were so clouded that he could barely tell when he did in fact hit obstacles.

Of course, it didn't help that his hollow kept jibbing in his two cents non stop, telling him how he could do so much better and how the pain would all go away if he just gave in. He also offered sleep. Now that sounds pretty unnecessary or basic to some at the moment, but to Ichigo, that seemed like pure bliss. Just the persuading thought of it seemed to start dragging him under.

'_No!'_ he couldn't let that happen. He had to get there before then.

One foot, one step at a time. He could do this. He just needed to push through and he could make it.

'_**You can't have it that easy!'**_

His hollow started pulling for control, but not nearly as much as he did previously. It was like he wasn't trying to really get control, but just make it that much more difficult. Well, it worked.

Ichigo was stopped in his tracks, doubled over and clutching his head. Needles, razor sharp by the feel of it, were penetrating his skull viciously from all angles, never giving any breaks from their onslaught.

'_**Haha! What's wrong, King? Why'd ya stop? Keep goin'!'**_ his hollow's voice taunted, releasing the pressure he was exerting.

Falling to the ground after the action, Ichigo panted hard as he lay there. He was not expecting the hollow to just stop so abruptly after his previous attempts were always so much more prolonged. It had an unexpected result on him though and that was how his stomach wrenched; contracting in a way most painful. Apparently, it wasn't expecting it either and reacted accordingly.

His entire body convulsed, bringing up the acid in his stomach. It burned and eroded away the interior lining of his esophagus and mouth due to the concentration of the acid from not eating for days. More blood came up with the acid in thin streams, adding to the increasing amount of blood he'd lost in just the past couple of hours. If he lost any more, then he would most likely be susceptible to passing out or other…complications arising.

'_I've gotta… get up… can't… or else.'_ Even his thoughts were getting jumbled to the point were the hollow didn't even know what he was talking, or thinking about.

He was literally dragging himself now to a lamppost to get some help raising himself back up onto his feet. If he could, then he would only have to walk a little longer. He couldn't be that far away now, could he? He had been walking for quite some time now, so it should be getting close now. At least, he hoped it was.

Relying heavily on the wall for support, he shuffled step by step forward. He waked along this way for a good five minutes, making some headway, until he spotted a familiar building coming into view. That was it. That was where he needed to go. That was the destination he was working so hard to get to all this time.

That place was none other than an abandoned warehouse, falling apart at the seams with holes in various places of its surfaces. The paint was faded, chipping in many sections and was rusted as well. It looked like it was about to fall in on itself at any moment. Trash was piled along its edges and ranged from a simple candy wrapper to a beat up bumper from a car.

But, no matter how unsightly and run down it looked, Ichigo would never forget this place. After all, it was the place he spent a majority of his time at before going to Hueco Mundo.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Would you please turn that music down? I can't concentrate with that crap blaring in my ear!" a very annoyed voice that belonged to someone with blonde hair yelled from across the very large room, if that's what it could be called. The whole floor was basically one 'room'.

"No." was the only response the person got. If anything, the music was turned up even louder, resulting in the other growing angrier by the second. Eventually, the blonde got up from their perch on a metal beam and stomped over to the other.

"Turn. It. Down." They ground out, hovering over the other, causing a shadow to fall over them.

"Will you just shut up about it already?" another voice said, sounding much more laid back about the whole situation than the others.

"You shut up!" the blonde retorted, turning now to the laid back person.

"Nah, I don't really feel like it right now. How about asking me again later?" they responded, gaining a very sly grin that showed his signature piano smile.

The smile on his face was quickly replaced by one of pain when a sandal smacked him there spot on. It fell to the floor a second later, leaving a bright red mark on the receiver's face in its shape.

Recovering from the initial shock of it all, he retorted accordingly, at least to his standards, "What the hell, Hiyori? !" he yelled at the short girl.

"What?" she asked innocently, "Can't take a little pain?" an evil smile crept up on her features.

"Not when you just hit me like that all of the sudden!"

"Well sorry. I didn't know that you were such a pansy about it. A _real_ man wouldn't complain about it so much unlike you." Hiyori said, placing a hand strategically on her hip.

"Why you-" Shinji was cut off before be could say anymore by Lisa.

"Will you two love birds please get a room so we don't have to deal with your bickering?" she asked, never looking up once from the manga, perverted at that, which she was reading.

Both Shinji's and Hiyori's faces turned bright red at her remark and they both turned to her, stuttering like idiots.

"Wh-what are y-you talking about?" Shinji asked in a higher tone than normal. His face was about the same color as a ripened beat, and Lisa, along with everyone else, smiled at the two and their embarrassment.

"We aren't in l-l-love!" Hiyori added.

"I don't know. You two certainly act like it." Lisa once again commented, now looking over the top of her book at the two.

"I have to agree with Lisa on this one." Love said, "You two sure do fight a lot like an old married couple."

"We do not!" both accused shouted at once.

"Oh come on. We can see it all over your faces. Just come out with it already." Love chimed in, enjoying teasing the two for a change.

"Ah, are Hiyori and Shinji going to get married?" Mashiro asked from her upside down position on the couch.

"No!" they responded quickly and simultaneously, causing Mashiro to start grumbling and going into one of her little temper tantrums. Everyone just ignored her though, continuing with the 'conversation' at hand.

"That's odd," Hachi said from his spot next to the squirming Mashiro.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"I'm sensing something near the barrier that doesn't feel like a Shinigami or a hollow. It's getting very close to our location too." He explained, focusing his senses on the force outside.

"I'll go check it out," Shinji suggested, eager to get away from his current situation.

Outside the large warehouse, Shinji took in large breaths of fresh air. It was very refreshing compared to that inside the building, which was very stale and suffocating. Outside was crisp, clean, and cool, giving a revitalized sensation to the in-taker. There were many birds chirping wistful songs in trees nearby and on rooftops, communicating to others of their kind. But that wasn't Shinji's focus right now.

Walking up to the edge of the barrier, he started looking around for anything out of the ordinary. He wasn't seeing anything weird or out of place, just the normal things like ants, alley cats, and such. Well, nothing wrong that he could see.

He turned to go back inside, regrettably, but something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. A form of black, slowly moving towards their home at a very unsteady pace. Focusing more on its energy and reiatsu it emitted, he felt a sense of familiarity from it that he just couldn't place his finger on. What was that? It was just on the tip of his tongue. The answer came to him very quickly when orange came into his sight that was previously blocked out by the sun behind the figure.

Ichigo.

The familiar carrot-top that he, as well as all others he lived with, knew well from training him for weeks.

Something was _very_ off about the young Shinigami before his though. His reiatsu felt strange, not even like a Vizard, but like something twisted. He couldn't really describe it, but it sent violent chills up his spine, something that rarely occurred.

As the boy crept closer, Shinji was capable of seeing his attire clearer, and was able to notice how torn up and bloodied they were. They were stained red with drops accumulating in places and falling off at even intervals, corresponding with him heart beat no doubt.

'_How the hell did he end up like that?'_

Shinji snapped out of his surprise when Ichigo reached out his hand towards the man behind the barrier, noticeably shaking and omitted a single, weak sentence that he would have _never_ expected to hear from his mouth.

"H-help…me." Ichigo said before his energy and body gave out on him and he fell down limply with his extended arm lying above his head.

"Hachi! Open up the barrier here, quickly!" Shinji yelled into the warehouse, hoping that his plea would be heard. It was when a small door-sized opening in front of him appeared.

Rushing out, Shinji hurried over to the fallen teen's side, quickly seeing how his condition was worse than he previously thought. He slung one of his arms under Ichigo's own and hefted him up onto his back, taking him inside the building as fast as he could.

As soon as he stepped foot in the entrance, all present in the room were immediately on their feet at seeing the bleeding form their comrade was carrying.

"What happened to Berry-chan?" Mashiro asked, looking over Ichigo's limp form with curiosity and concern.

"I don't know," Shinji responded, "Hachi, can you try to heal him?"

"I can try," the large man replied, gesturing for the sly blonde to set the body he was carrying down in front of him. Shinji complied, gently lowering Ichigo down, where Hachi began the healing process on him, which resembled Orihime's own closely.

"Did you just find him like that?" Kensei said, his curiosity peaked for once.

"Kinda. He was walking towards here in this condition and then just collapsed, but not before he asked for help. I've never known Ichigo to ask for help before, so something really bad must be going on for him to do something like that."

"Something's not right here. Why would he come here when he could go to Urahara's?" Lisa questioned, pondering the facts they knew and tapping her finger on her chin. "This isn't adding up."

"I know," Shinji said, also thinking about it all. He started humming lowly in his thoughts, "It must be something else. He wouldn't come here if he didn't have a legitimate reason to. The only reason I can think of at the moment is something with his inner hollow, but that has already been taken care of. Also, why is he in the state that he is in? Who attacked him and how were they able to reduce him to such? I just can't seem to sort these things out."

"Yes, neither can I." Lisa added.

"Well, I really don't care!" Hiyori said, crossing her arms in a pouting motion, "Who cares why he's like this? It's his own fault."

"Hiyori-chan! You're so mean!" Mashiro commented, sticking out her bottom lip.

"Whatever. I'm going to sit over there so I'm _not_ wasting my time." She stated before she stomped off, jumping up onto one of the upper levels of the building to seclude herself further from everyone else.

"Well, that was different. I wonder what caused Hiyori to act that way?" Rose asked, somewhat perturbed to why the short blonde acted out like such.

"Oh well. At least she's not complaining around us anymore." Shinji said.

"Um, Hirako… we may have a little problem here." Hachi said, gathering everyone's attention towards himself.

"What is…" Shinji started, trailing off at the end as he saw what Hachi was talking about, "Oh shit…"

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

She watched the whole scene from atop her post on the building ledge. She witnessed everything from them bringing Ichigo inside to the strange occurrence there after that got even her starting to worry for the teen's, as well as everyone else's safety. This new upset could really put a damper on how she had previously thought it was going to play out for the boy.

She needed to inform the others of what had just transpired, before anything else happened that could only make the situation they were currently in worse. If she were not to do so, then everyone already involved, and probably even those who weren't so, would be in great peril.

Not wasting any time, she got up from her perch, managing to gracefully jump from one building to another without so much as one slip-up. Between every leap, her form disappeared from sight briefly, only to reappear mere seconds later much father ahead than she was at previously.

The wind flew through her fur as she traveled, pulling it back behind her body and giving it a very sleek look that would have been admired if not in this current situation.

Spotting two familiar figures that she knew very well, she changed her direction to go towards them instead. She landed, making no noise what so ever in her actions, right in front of the two who were also traveling at high speeds like herself, just not nearly as fast.

They stopped immediately in their tracks and gawked at the one before them. Saying that they were surprised would have been an understatement then. It was really written all across their faces. They had the previous knowledge that the person they were looking at were supposed to be elsewhere for a much longer time period than this.

The shorter one of the two with shoulder length black hair, who many of us know as Rukia, stepped forward, a look of happiness and joy on her face.

"Yoruichi!"

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: So, what do you think of the cliffhangers I gave you there? Horrible, I know, but I just couldn't help it! ^^ For some reason I'm curious to see when you guys figured out that it was Yoruichi at the end there. Did you find out:**

**A. At the very beginning**

**B. When I mentioned her fur**

**C. Saying how they weren't nearly as fast as her in Shunpo, or**

**D. Wait, Yoruichi was in it? !**

**Thanks to everyone who is reading and please review later~ It helps! Please believe me! D: Bye for now! **


	15. And They All Fall Down

**A/N: So, it turns out that I have a pretty serious sinus infection, which explains why I've been feeling like my head is going to explode for the past week. It _really_ sucks! But I should be getting' better here soon with the meds they put me on. Also, I changed the rating to M 'cause of the gory content that is going to follow coming up.**

**Warning: This chapter contains a high amount of violence and graphic descriptions, so be prepared.**

**Disclaimer: I don't freakin' own Bleach!**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

"Yoruichi!" Rukia happily said to the small black feline in front of both her and Renji, "What are you doing here? I thought you were in the Soul Society."

"I was," Yoruichi said in her deep baritone voice that she always used when in her cat form, "But I came back early because Kisuke informed me that I was needed here instead."

"What did he tell you?" Renji asked.

"He told me enough. Right now we have another problem on our hands though. You two need to go to where the Vizards are located and help out in any way you can." She informed them, getting ready to jump off again.

"Wait, what's going on over there?" Rukia asked her.

"I'm not quite sure, but they're going to need help and you can probably find out why there. Hitsugaya and the rest should show up there too once they feel the disturbance," on cue, a massive amount of reiatsu crashed down on them, exerting its pressure on their bodies with great force, "Now," she continued, seemingly unaffected by this event, "If you'll excuse me, I need to go have a talk with Kisuke about some things." With that, the cat woman flickered out of existence, leaving the two alone once again.

No communication took place between them, just the simple nod of their heads and they were off once again in the direction on the berry-head and the source of the power pressing down upon them.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

All Shinji and the rest of the Vizards could do was stare in utter shock and denial at what was taking place before them. Their eyes were widened, not moving from the sight placed in front of them, and their mouths were agape, not being able to form the words necessary to say anything at all. Why were they like this? The answer lay in the form of an orange headed Shinigami on the floor.

Ichigo's body contorted and spasmed in place, almost as if he was having some type of seizure. His hands were gripping tightly at his hair, pulling on it in the pain that he was in. Black threads were being emitted from his body, swirling around him and giving off a high pitched hissing noise as they cut through the air. Those threads reached out towards the square, prism like field above him. Once they made contact, the surface cracked and splintered before breaking completely. That was when Ichigo started screaming.

He screamed like nothing else mattered, emptying his lungs of all air inside. His eyes shot open wide, a scarred – no – _terrified_ emotion inside them. They were slowly changing from the white and chocolate brown to black and molten yellow. His screams were becoming more hollow like by the second, filling the warehouse with its echoing tones. The black threads started weaving around his withering form, encasing him in a growing web.

Still, all the Vizards could do was stare in shock. This was the last thing that they expected to happen to Ichigo. After all, they were under the impression that his hollow was under control. Nothing even relatively similar to this had _ever_ happened to them after their own hollows were dealt with, so they were completely stumped as to why this was occurring to one of their own.

If possible, their eyes and shock grew at what happened next to the boy in front of them.

A gaping, circular hole opened up in the center of his chest, right where his heart was.

Right after that, his body was consumed wholly by the threads, shielding his body from view. A powerful pulse of reiatsu was emitted from him, purely that of a hollow's, stirring up a large cloud of dust. This pushed everyone back from its force and made them cover their faces for protection. There after, a cackle broke through, reverberating from all directions.

"Get ready!" Shinji called to everyone, now including Hiyori who was disturbed by the commotion, "I don't know what's going to happen, but we can't be unprepared."

They all took their stances, readying their weapons, bracing themselves for what was to come. The laughter from before started to grow, giving everyone a horrid sense of dread and foreboding.

"Hachi, increase the barrier's strength. We're gonna need it 'cause this is going to be one hell of a fight." Shinji asked, his attention never wavering from the spot the teen's body was last seen.

Finally, the dust began to clear, slowly revealing the monster that lay in its depths. The person they all knew as Ichigo was gone and in his place was a vicious beast barely resembling him in any way except for his hair, now down to his waist. It was still the familiar bright orange, but everything else held no resemblance. Sure he still had parts of his Shinigami clothing, but his whole physique was monstrous. The very definition of a nightmare stood before them with pure white skin, black tribal-like markings originating from his hollow hole, a terrifying mask, and mostly the cold, unforgiving dark eyes that shown through, starring into one's being with pure bloodlust, capable of freezing most to the spot with one look.

The beast slowly gazed around the room, calculating all those before him and just taking everything in. Once he went over everyone, who were still down and ready for him to attack, he started laughing manically once more.

"**Oh, this is great!"** the hollow said, **"I get out an' I have all these people waitin' just fer me ta fight. I feel truly honored."** He gave a mocking bow, giggling all the while.

"**Although,"** he said coming back up from his pose,** "It still won't be much of a fight, but I guess it'll work. At least fer now."** His words were dripping in sarcasm, just tempting the Vizards to pounce.

"What d' ya say?" Hiyori asked, bristling at his last comment. She always was one to rise to anger very quickly.

"**Don't get me wrong, it'll still be fun. After all, I will get ta **_**play**_** with ya pricks who helped my little King imprison me again. We never got ta finish last time. Even though none of ya will last very long, I'll enjoy it,"** after this statement, he threw his head back and let out a deep and powerful roar, sending out shockwaves by just that alone.

A couple members present found that they should take this time to don their own hollow masks, seeing how powerful their opponent seemed. Eventually, the whole room had their respected face ornaments summoned.

The white demon halted his roar and disappeared in a burst of static. They couldn't find him at all, no matter where they looked.

"Where did you go?" Shinji whispered to himself in a warbled voice that always came along with the mask. His eyes scanned the area, unable to locate him anywhere. That was until he heard the crackle off behind him.

He spun on his heels, turning to find the hollow behind Lisa, who was unaware of the severity of her situation. The hollow had its arm ready to strike, beginning to bring it forward to slash the woman before him with the slender, pitch black bankai version of Zangetsu in hand.

"Lisa! Look out!" Shinji cried, already hastily making his way over to her, as were many others who realized her predicament.

She turned around, zanpakuto already coming up to guard her against the oncoming attack, just like she had been trained to after all those years of fighting for survival and her life. But it was all in vain.

The black sword cleaved completely through her own, breaking it in two. It continued on its merciless path towards her prone and unguarded figure and slashed straight across her chest, right below the line of her collar. The sound of bones snapping could be clearly heard, most likely from numerous ribs and the clavicle.

Lisa crashed into the concrete floor underneath her, creating a large crater from the shear force of the swing. Her mask broke instantly and disappeared back into reishi. Blood spurted from her mouth before she went completely limp, broken zanpakuto clattering down beside her.

The others were not far away, closing in fast. The hollow crouched down and sprung off towards his right, leaping out in the direction of Rose, Love, and Kensei at a dizzying speed that they could barely even see.

He tackled Love, bringing him along as he dove for the ground. They impacted with Love's back making a harsh connection first, then the hollow's feet grinding into his abdomen, knocking the wind out of him. Rose and Kensei came up at each of his sides, swords drawn up and ready.

They each swung at the same time, both aiming for his chest. Their blades met notihng but the air as it passed through the empty space where their opponent was supposed to be residing. Rose was the one to first discover where he was by the zanpakuto sticking out of his right bicep, covered in his blood that was also running down his chest and chin.

Kensei, charging a cero at the tip of his short blade, fired at the hollow's head. Right before it hit its intended target, it was blown away by a smaller, although stronger red cero, overpowering his own and sending him back from its force. He hit a metal beam jutting out at an odd angle from the wall, causing him to black out immediately.

Shinji was next, coming up from behind him. The white demon had no way to defend himself because of the fact that his sword was still lodged in the body of Rose and he didn't have time to pull it out. This was the perfect opportunity, and Shinji took it.

Swinging his sword at a steep, downward angle, Shinji aimed to disable the monster from a near fatal wound in the chest and stomach area. He was just about to make contact when his weapon was halted; stopped in place by the thing's bare hand.

Tightly gripping the sword, the hollow brought his captive in closer to himself. He lowered his head, pointing his horns at the man's diaphragm, and started charging another bright red cero in between them. This one was larger, much more powerful than the last, and they would hear it from the high pitched screeching noise it gave off. The beast chuckled briefly before firing, point blank.

There was a good deal of smoke that was given off from that attack, hiding the damage that had been done from sight. When it cleared, Shinji's burnt form became visible off at a distance from his opponent, now holding his sword but breathing heavily.

The hollow removed his sword from Rose's body and brought it up to his mouth, running his tongue across it, licking up the blood deposited there by his many victims.

"**Not bad,"** he commented, slowly beginning to walk towards the wounded Shinji. Before he was able to take very many steps, a voice cut through the air, uttering something he wasn't really expecting and therefore stopping his death march.

"Bakudo roku juu ni, Hyapporankan!" **[1]** Hachi yelled, summoning up a light blue pole and then throwing it at the hollow's side.

He didn't have time to dodge, being caught off guard and all, so he was hit dead on by the numerous rods which duplicated after being casted. The glowing poles rammed into him and sent him flying into the opposite wall, pinning him in place and not allowing him to move.

"Now Hiyori!" Shinji yelled to the blonde, pig tailed girl.

She appeared directly in front of the caught hollow via Shunpo and released her own pre-charged cero, creating a blinding light.

It did nothing.

The hollow came out of the attack completely unscaved, but looked very satisfied and happy about what just transpired. He broke out in a full blown laughter that took on a tone of hysteria. The rods holding him down started splintering and cracking along their lengths, and then disintegrating into thin air, all except for one which he grabbed hold of. He took this rod and threw it back at the sender, hitting his mark in the center of the large man's neck. Hachi sputtered and gave off a garbled, choked cry before he fell down to the concrete floor where his blood pooled around him.

The now freed captive wasted no time in piercing his clawed hand through Hiyori's gut after that.

"No!" cried Shinji, eyes filled with rage. He leapt forward to get the monster to release Hiyori from his grasp.

To bad that was just what he was hoping for.

The hollow moved Hiyori in front of himself to block Shinji from a frontal assault. Having to change his direction cost him valuable time in which the hollow took to charge a bala with his free hand and quickly released it at the unsuspecting Vizard. The attack sent him sliding back on his side and leaving him with a couple cracked ribs with internal bleeding showing in him coughing up crimson blood.

"**Now, now. I'll get ta ya later,"**the hollow turned his attention back towards the girl who his hand was still imbedded in. he spread his fingers, widening the wound and earning himself a strangled cry from her.

"**I wonder how good ya taste?"** he purred, edging his face closer to her own.

"Don't you dare!" Shinji choked out, trying to get himself up to come to Hiyori's aid.

"**Try an' stop me,"** he brought his mouth down to the crook of her neck near her left shoulder. Opening his mouth wide, mask following suit, he dug his teeth into her flesh, blood flowing freely from the spot. She screamed, in agony from the act, only all the more infuriating the leader of their group farther.

Tearing whatever his mouth could get a hold of away, the monstrous hollow swallowed it whole without so much as even chewing. He shook with pleasure as it slid down his throat just like the time previously, momentarily lost in the feeling. He slowly came back to his senses and dropped the girl he was holding, letting her wither on the ground.

Licking his hand free of all the gleaming red liquid he could find, he looked around lazily at the battered warehouse that had severely suffered from the one sided battle taking place within it. Some of the Vizards, including Shinji, Love, Kensei, and a barely conscious Rose were beginning to rise once again to try and fight off the terrible menace that lay before them. In just a short amount of time consisting of only a few minutes, that monster had managed to critically wound every person there and even kill one or two of them single handedly. It didn't even seem like he was trying, more like he was having fun toying with them.

He finished cleaning his hand of any foreign substances and turned his attention back towards the remaining fighters left.

"**Next."**

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"It's not much farther now. We should be coming up on it any second now." Rukia said to her pineapple headed companion who was running beside her.

"You've been there before, right Rukia?" he asked, just a little curious to find out how she knew what the Vizard's hideout was located and looked like.

"Ya, I have. When we returned back from Hueco Mundo, I went there once with Ichigo." She informed.

The force of the heavy reiatsu was getting steadily stronger the more they traveled, dampening their fears as they went because of the volume and power of it.

Rukia's eyes lighted up when she saw the familiar warehouse come into her line of sight, pointing it out to her comrade of the fact. They went off towards it faster, using Shunpo to help them along. They arrived at the perimeter of the run down and beaten building right before they were met with Hitsugaya and the rest of his team as well a few seconds after their own arrival.

"Glad to see you two made it here too," he commented, "We'd better hurry and get in there to help."

"Right!" many of them responded, making their way towards the entrance.

"That's odd," Rukia said with a questioning gaze.

"What is it Kuchiki?" Toushiro asked.

"Well, the last time I was here, they had a barrier up that needed to be lowered before we could go in, but that doesn't seem to be here. Why would they not have it up?"

"Probably not for a very good reason. Come on!" Hitsugaya commanded, leading his renegade group inside the building.

When they entered, it was not the most pleasant sight to walk in on.

Blood stained almost everywhere, coating the floor and walls in a bright shade of red. The broken and battered bodies of the Vizard members were scattered across the cement. Each one of them having some sort of serious wound inflicted on their forms. Some of them were covered in cuts and slashes that littered their bodies and others were burnt with charred skin as black as the night. The worse one of them all though was the barely recognizable form of Hiyori who was laying face up, her eyes void of all life with a pure white figure hovering over her, its face shoved in her abdomen. The horrid sounds of its chewing could be heard because of the complete silence presiding over the group, and made them cringe at the sight and sound. Never before had they seen something so gruesome and cruel as the scene before them now, and it made all of them sick to their cores.

"No… that can't be him," Rukia murmured to herself, "That can't be Ichigo."

At the mention of that name, the white demon looked up from his meal and over to the newly arrived group. His face was completely smeared in blood, adding to the already terrifying features of his mask. He leered at them with his eyes gleaming through the sockets.

The Shinigami took their stances, readying themselves for anything that could come from their former friend. With their swords now drawn, they awaited for the hollow to make a move.

"Be careful everyone," Toushiro whispered to his team mates, "Don't go easy on him just because he used to be Kurosaki. He's just a monster now."

"No…" Rukia said once more, covering her mouth with one of her hands, "Ichigo! Snap out of it already and look at what you're doing!"

"Kuchiki, get a hold of yourself! That's not Kurosaki anymore" Hitsugaya yelled at the shaken, petite woman.

"Rukia," Renji said sympathetically.

The bloodied beast in front of them rose to his feet, showing off his true height. He started laughing lowly and hunching over slightly.

"**Your little Ichigo isn't here anymore, an' he ain't comin' back anytime soon. Well," **it started off, wiping his mouth to get rid of some of the blood still residing there,** "I'm basically done here, so I'll just let ya do the clean-up fer me."**

He vanished in a flash of static from the scene, leaving the wrecked room in his wake. Rukia fell to her knees, silently shedding her tears.

"Ayasegawa, Madarame, you two check to see if anyone survived here. If they have, then bring them to Urahara's. Maybe Inoue will be able to help the other less fortunate ones with her healing abilities if she can." Hitsugaya said solemnly.

"Why are we stuck with the boring job?" Ikkaku asked, anxious to get out there and fight, not doing cleaning duty.

"Just do it. Come on Matsumoto, we're going after Kurosaki if we can manage to find him."

"What about us?" Renji questioned, on the ground comforting the shaken Rukia.

"Calm her down first and then come follow us. We can't have someone who's emotionally stressed on the battle field making rash decisions." Toushiro stated and went off with Rangiku on his heels.

"I should have done something…" Rukia whispered as she shook in Renji's arms.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

She gracefully padded into the shop and quickly located the green clad man within its depths. Sitting down beside him at the low table he was at, she looked seriously at his figure which was slumped over his cup of cold tea. Her tail swished back and forth impatiently as she waited for the man to speak. She ended up having to talk first, seeing how he wasn't going to be doing so any time soon.

"What do you have planned, Kisuke?" Yoruichi asked her old friend.

He sighed deeply, briefly closing his eyes and then opening them a few seconds later, directing his gaze out the small window adjacent to him, "I'm not sure."

"This isn't the Kisuke I know," she responded, jumping up onto the table to get in front of him, "The one I know would never give up on something like this so easily. He would take this problem head on and figure out some genius way to solve it that no one would have ever thought of, no matter how ridiculous it sounded! Where did that man go?"

"I'm sorry, Yoruichi-san. I just can't seem to find out how to solve this at all. I've gone through all the possibilities multiple times, but none of them would work. I feel like the answer is just starring me in the face, but I can't reach out and grab it."

"Oh, will you get over it! You can do it! I know that you can. After all, you've solved bigger problems than this before, haven't you?" she asked, a mischievous look in her animalistic eyes.

This seemed to light a new fire in his eyes as he looked directly at the black feline, "You're right. Haha, thanks Yoruichi." He smiled, standing up, "There must be some way to help reverse the effects, something I'm overlooking."

"If anyone can find that out," she said, turning into her human form and hugging Urahara from behind, resting her head on his shoulder, "It's you," she comforted in her now female voice.

"Thank you," Urahara said quietly, leaning his own head on hers. It was in these moments that his soft and gentle side came out, always only with Yoruichi at his side.

"Now get to work," she said playfully, pushing him out the door leading to his study.

"The push was a little unnecessary, wasn't it?" he asked quizzically. His face turned into one of deep concentration after the comment, his eyebrows furrowing deeply on it for some reason. He began tapping his finger on his chin rhythmically to go along with his thinking.

Suddenly, realization dawned on him and his entire demeanor brightened drastically. His face held an emotion that could be described as a 'Eureka!' expression, completely elated at what he just managed to figure out.

"That's it! Oh, thank you Yoruichi! Thank you so much!" he cried happily, hugging the woman tightly and then turning back towards the door and hurrying off.

"Wait, what did I just help you with?" she asked.

"I just figured out how to help Kurosaki-san with his little problem, and it's all because of you!" he excitedly proclaimed as he ran off to his study, Yoruichi's satisfied look following him as he went.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**[1] Bakudo 62, hundred steps fence. This spell is only really used once in the anime/manga, so that may be why some haven't heard of it very extensively. I'm pretty sure that Hisagi is the one to use it too. Go look it up if you want more information on it.**

**A/N: How's that for a gruesome chapter? It was really my first time writing an extensive fight scene, so I'd love your guys input on how it turned out. This chapter took FOREVER to get typed! The main reason being that my computer is a total piece of crap and kept shutting down on me and also that the "A" button kept fallin' off basically every time I tried to write. Eventually, I got that problem sorted out though, so no need to worry about that. Just a little update, I'm going to be starting a joint story with TheSecondQuincy later this week, so if you want you can check it out when we get the first chapter uploaded. **

**I think that's it, so later! Oh, review please~**


	16. Alarm Bells Ring

**A/N: Hey, sorry for not updating for a while. I've been VERY busy with school. The past two weeks, I had to read three books, do reports on all of them and other junk, had to do a complete research experiment that took about a week to finish, and a bunch of other crap! It sucked! I swear all of my teachers are just trying to make us all fail with all this work. But, I'm thankfully on Spring Break now! *Runs around in a circle screaming* Also, the last time I updated this story fanfiction was being stupid for me and I'm pretty sure some of you might not have read the last chapter. Anyways, enough with my ranting, on with the story! :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach! **

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Breaking off of the branch it was connected to by a red-streaked bird pecking at its stem, a lone leaf, emerald green just as the grass with tints of yellow, floated down towards the ground in a fluttering motion, twisting and turning over different ways in correlation with the breeze.

The tip of the leaf barely made contact with the ground, just grazing the surface, before it was taken away by a gust of wind, picking it up and taking it with itself on its ever changing journey. It danced in the wind, making unpredictable yet somehow graceful movements as it went. It flew past buildings and trees, always coming close to them, but never fully touching them when only a hairs length away, always getting tugged in another direction by the gentle force.

Drifting off towards a busy street, the leaf edged closer to the road where many cars and other vehicles raced by on the black surface. Coming near the pavement, it glided across it for a short period of time before being picked up by the gust from a passing car, swirling it around to the other side of the road. Another car came, heading straight for the green appendage at a rapid peed, on a collision course that was not going to move. Why would it?

At just the last second, the leaf was pulled away and grazed the side of the car, floating back up towards the speckled blue sky above. With the momentum it carried, it flew high, clearing several building tops as it went thanks to the wind and trajectory speed it gathered.

It stayed up there, just barely floating along, almost as if it were in a state of equilibrium. The sound of the wind picking back up could be heard in the distance, signifying that the small leaf's journey was not over yet. Doing a couple more slow turns in the air, it was then pick up again by the breeze and began traveling through the town once more.

It was only less than a second before a stark white figure flashed by, coming within inches of the floating object. Instantaneously, the leaf completely disintegrated, leaving nothing present that it was ever there except for the small microscopic particles that scattered in the wind.

Laughing like the psychotic maniac that he was, the hollow that was previously residing inside the mind's body it was possessing ran through the air at high speeds, occasionally using sonido whenever it pleased. He jumped all over the town, going where ever suited his tastes at the moment. _Although_, he did have a goal in mind…

Gleefully smiling, he spotted a lone, wondering soul walking through the abandoned section of town with a bewildered look on her pale face. She wore a white dress that came up just above her knees along with a white sun hat covering her flowing jet black hair that she had her hand placed on to make sure that it didn't fly away. She was looking around at the old, rusted down buildings surrounding her in question and it seemed as though she must have been lost because of her actions; possibly wondered to this part of town on accident after taking a wrong turn. Her metal chain attached to her chest clanged together as she turned around, creating clinking sounds similar to that of a wind chime.

Hearing a static-like sound behind her, she turned towards the location. However, she never got to see what caused it for her vision went completely black as she felt her body being torn to shreds, being drawn away with a sense of floating.

The maniacal hollow ripped at anything he could grab a hold of. Anything and everything his black claws touched was either torn away with brutal force and thrown to the side or devoured, swallowing the flesh that met his mouth immediately.

This meal seemed to quench the ever constant hunger that always followed with him for the moment. It was actually the same hunger that Ichigo himself had been experiencing, although much less intense. It only felt like a nagging sensation in his stomach that just basically annoyed him until he ate a soul's flesh. It was also damn enjoyable too and felt as if nothing else mattered as the warm liquid ran down his throat, making everything take on a tingling feeling from the inside out. That may sound a little strange or even cheesy, but there was really no exact way to describe the pleasure that he experienced every time he devoured the sweet substance.

Nothing recognizable was left of the woman that stood no chance against the beast what-so-ever. He licked his lips, caressing his now blue colored tongue over the white and red stained sharp teeth of the mask to get any blood that was still there off. He turned his head and torso to the side abruptly as he sensed another soul close nearby, probably only just a couple of blocks down from his location. His anticipation and blood lust rose.

He might as well have a little fun as he went. After all, it wasn't like _they _were going to go anywhere in the meantime. It wasn't like the Shinigami would _ever_ catch up to him anytime soon.

He growled low in eagerness, sounding close in resemblance to a demonic purr. Pouncing off north, he jumped through the air towards his next victim that turned out to be a middle-aged man clutching a briefcase to his chest. He didn't even get any warning.

The hollow lunged on his prey, quickly piercing his claws through the front of the man's chest, completely obliterating his heart. He slumped to the ground lifelessly as his briefcase skidded over the ground, carrying with it a trail of blood.

The hollow jumped off before the now dead man even hit the ground, already leaping off once again. He licked his hand, trailing his tongue across every inch of their surface, making sure to savor every last drop.

He continued his rampage – no, slaughter – this way, killing each and every soul that was unlucky enough to come across his path. Barely any of them were recognizable after their unfortunate encounters with the monster; their bodies smothered in blood from the open wounds covering them with their main characteristics destroyed wholly. None were safe that the hollow saw, always dieing at his hands.

A crimson colored path was left in his wake, trailing along him with every kill. He was getting closer now. Closer to where two very important people were residing, and he was getting gitty with anticipation at the though of what lay before him.

He was almost there…

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Ikkaku pressed his index and middle finger across the side of the neck of a very beat up Shinji, checking for the vital life sign that was a pulse.

_Ba-bump… Ba-bump… Ba-bump…_

It was faint, but there none the less. He was alive. Another one of the slaughtered group that was lucky to survive the attack. Some of the others were not so fortunate.

Ikkaku let out a satisfactory huff at the heart beat and gently pulled the wounded man's arm over his shoulders and brought him over a nearby wall where the other bodies were at, some with a pulse and others void of all life. He set him down on his back like the others on the cold and bloodied ground that was in much better shape than the rest of the place. Now, back to the rest stills scattered about the room.

A low and barely audible groan sounded next to Ikkaku. He quickly turned towards the blonde man who created it. Shinji was coming back into consciousness, his eyes squeezing together as they attempted to open.

Ikkaku called Yumichika over, who was checking over a rotund man with a circular hole in his neck with a disgusted looked etched on his face as he prodded the male. At the sound of the summons, he gladly left the victim's side to go to his friend's instead.

"This guy's waking up," Madarame told his flamboyant friend.

"Oh? That's unexpected."

"Oi, you comin' around?" Ikkaku asked as he lightly poked Shinji's arm.

Hirako cracked his eyes open and looked at the people above him in confusion and pain. He made an effort to sit up from the floor, but only managed to barely lift his head off the ground before his strength failed him. Thankfully, the bald headed guy and the one with feathers in his hair were there to help him into a sitting position against the wall.

As he lay there panting with his arms lying limp at his sides, he kept trying to say something, but just wasn't able to get it all out. It all sounded jumbled and incomplete, so the two Shinigami just kept trying to comprehend what he was saying without success.

"What? C'mon man, speak up. We can't understand you," Ikkaku sated, not really caring about the man's condition.

"R… R-Ruk… ia," he managed to get out with much effort. This slightly confused the two, but they shrugged and complied none the less.

"Oi, Renji! Bring Rukia over here! This guy wants to talk to her!" the bald one yelled to the two on the floor. Renji was still _trying_ to get Rukia to calm down with out making much progress. He begrudgingly led her over to where the others were stationed. When the shaken girl in his arms laid eyes on the bloodied but awake Shinji, she rushed over to his side in concern.

He looked like he was about to black out at any moment by the look on his face. But for some reason he kept a hold of his consciousness and continued fighting to keep it. He turned his head to her with his lips moving slowly, but no sound same out that they could hear. He had to take many deep, shaky breaths before he could speak loud enough for them.

"He-e's… go-oing af… ter… them…" he slurred out. Them? Who was them?

"Wait, what are you talking about, Hirako-san?" Rukia asked sincerely.

"The t-two… ki-ill… h-home..." he said without making much sense. Rukia though on his words hard. There might be something she could take from them. 'Two, kill, and home.' What could he be possibly mean by-

'_Wait'_ Rukia thought. A terrified expression overtook her face as she figured it out before the others. _Home_. _'Oh no…'_

She jumped up from where she sat, quickly thanking Shinji for telling her this valuable information. "Renji, let's go!"

"Uh, okay!" he replied and hurried after her retreating figure. Once he caught up to her, he asked her a question, "Um, where are we going?'

"To protect them," was all she said, not clearing up Renji's confusion in the least bit.

As Shinji's pained and tired eyes watched them go, it was all he could do but hope that they would make it in time.

"Hurry," he faintly uttered as he finally lost his battle and blacked out again.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It was really disgusting. All the blood, gore, carnage, and death that they came across was almost too much to stomach for them. Even with all their experience as a Taichou and Fukutaichou on the battlefield, they still had problems with this gruesome sight. The torture done to all the defendless souls must have been unbearable. And to cause them, who could even _have_ a mind like that?

Toushiro and Rangiku had been following the destructive path that the rampaging hollow that was once Ichigo was still creating. They just couldn't seem to catch up to him, no matter how fast they traveled. His path was all over the place too before long ago when it finally started heading in a straighter line.

Hitsugaya looked over to his Fukutaichou and saw how she seemed to be running out of breathe. That was concerning.

Matsumoto caught his gaze and gave him a reassuring smile to say she was okay. That didn't completely convince him, but it was better than nothing. She looked back down to the bodies that littered the ground and sadness replaced her smile. She obviously wasn't liking this anymore than he was.

His eyes widened as a glow of red quickly entered his peripheral vision and forced him to move his head quickly to the side at the last second. The energy ball whizzed by him, just missing his head by mere centimeters and exploding far off in the background.

Quickly getting over the shock thanks to his experienced battle instincts, the short Taichou whirled around to where the attack came from, finding the area completely barren.

"Taichou! Are you okay?" Rangiku asked frantically, not expecting the random attack.

Nodding his head slowly, Toushiro confirmed Rangiku's question, but never took his eyes off of his surroundings. He expected another attack for it would seem unlikely to just attack once and then leave. But from where was his own question.

He was just about to turn around when a white body flew up from below in between the pair faster than the blink of an eye. They had no time to react.

Before Hitsugaya could even bring his zanpakuto out of its sheath to defend himself, he found a pair of black clawed feet in his chest that pushed him back with extreme force. He was sent crashing into a building's roof, crumbling it in the process. Rangiku, who did manage to draw her zanpakuto, was unable to put it to any use. Ichigo – no, this still wasn't even close to him. This_ hollow_ forcible grabbed her scarf and threw her down to the ground below. She landed right on top of a corpse that he already killed earlier, but was still very fresh as is was still bleeding out. If it hadn't already disappeared, than this must have been a human and not just a soul.

"**Hahahaha! This is great!"** he laughed in a dark, warbled voice at the two. Toushiro was beginning to push himself out of the rubble he had created and Rangiku had managed to roll away from the body in horror.** "Damn, ya guys 're fun! I mean, just look at yer faces!" **he said as he pointed to them each and kept laughing.

Once he calmed himself down, with some chucking every now and then, he turned to look at the snow haired death god. It looked like his mask was even twisting up in a smile as well.

"**Wanna have some more fun?"** he asked in a playful tone. He some what sounded like a kid when he talked like that. He crouched down in the middle of the air with his hands in between his legs resting on invisible ground and rounded his back.

"**Come 'nd catch me,"** he said darkly. He disappeared in a burst towards the residential area.

Toushiro managed to stumble out of the building remains and gathered up Rangiku who seemed traumatized, speeding off again.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

He hadn't had this much fun for a long time. In fact, had he ever even had this much fun before? Probably not, since King never let him out enough to even get the opportunity.

King. Oh, how much he hated that person. He'd kill him if he wouldn't die along with the pathetic excuse for a ruler. That was one of the downsides with sharing a soul. You can never be without the other. King really wouldn't be that bad if he didn't always just consider himself in everything and literally push all of his own opinions away. He never, not even once, considered how he felt on anything, not on one of his idiotic decisions. That's what really pissed him off. How hard was it really to just think about how your decisions will affect the other residents of your soul? Not hard at all. And, because of his ignorance and stupidity, King was going to pay. He was going to suffer in the worst ways he could imagine, and he would be unable to do anything about it. Just watch the horror show play before his eyes that he could only wish was some sort of nightmare.

The hollow smiled broadly at that thought, bounding faster on his path. With those wannabe Shinigami chasing him now, it was getting even more entertaining for him. His little game was just beginning too.

How should he kill them after he finished playing with them? There were endless possibilities that all seemed wonderful, but none just quite the right option. Oh well. He shouldn't think on that too much right now. When their time was up, he'd know how to kill them.

A familiar building with some kids coming out of it passed by him. If his memory was working right for him from looking and listening through King's senses, then that was what they called a school. Apparently, people of Ichigo's age and even older had to spend over eight hours a day in one of those things and just sit there doing nothing important. Honestly, it didn't seem that bad considering how that was basically what he did all the time anyways, except he had no means of escape in his case.

But that was beside the point. Seeing that school meant that his destination was going to be coming up any minute now. He felt behind himself with his senses and confirmed that those two were still there, although falling farther and farther back. If he really focused, then he could feel two more coming from way back, but heading towards him as well. The more the merrier.

Ah, there it is. The medium sized home with the ever noticeable sign plastered on the front. And, inside of it, seen through one of the open windows, were two small girls around the same age. One was cooking something in the kitchen and the other resting on the couch watching a glowing and talking box. Wasn't that called a television? Yeah, that's it. The humans watched things on there mindlessly all day long. He had no idea what kind of things, but it must have been entertaining and better than what he did. All he did was watch the sky change according to a hormonal teenager's emotions. Of course, there was the occasional sunset or sunrise and sometimes the clouds turned different colors. But it was usually rather boring.

Again, getting beside the point. He jumped over to land above the open window, just out of their sight but still being able to see them. He smiled devilishly.

Now the real show could begin.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: How did you like the last part basically from Hichigo's perspective? I didn't even mean to write that at the end, but it just kinda came out. Hehe. Oh well, it turned out good to me! ^^ Since I am on Spring Break now, updates should be really fast for the next week and a half! Hooray!~ I have a couple other things to say:**

**I started another story called The Woman In Black inspired by one of our very own GGCharms and that's up on my profile if any of you want to check that out.**

**So on Thursday I watched the Hunger Games movie, and let me just say this one thing so that I don't ruin it for people who haven't. It. Was. AMAZING! I've read the books and it followed them extremely accurately! I loved it! XD If you haven't read the books yet and you want to see the movie, go read them! They are too good not to read, even if you aren't going to see the movie. Okay, sorry for that little rant.**

**Thanks for reading and please review. Last time I got a sad amount of reviews, but I think that's just 'cause of fanfiction and everything I've already mentioned. So please, PLEASE review! I love them so much! They are my life blood! Please and thank you, and I will hopefully see you all soon~ ^^**


	17. The Countdown Begins

**A/N: There isn't very much action going on in this chapter. I guess it's more of a filler in a way 'cause it's leading up to future events. Sure, let's go with that :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach! Why must I say this every time! ? This world is so cruel!**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Looking at the ever changing screen that contents only flashed by for just a few seconds, the blonde shop owner kept alternating his attention between it and the other papers scattered around the room. Documents with ink and led scribbled across their once white surfaces were spewed everywhere imaginable. The desks and floor couldn't even be seen anymore because of them, and more were joining their ranks every minute.

Kisuke kept gathering more data to accompany the ever growing amount all about one subject.

Ichigo.

No matter how much information he compiled, it just didn't seem like enough. There was always one or more variables missing that he would have to find. Then those would lead to more holes and more after that. Still, he felt like he was getting closer to his answer, no matter how taxing the work got.

He swiveled his chair over to the other side of the room and grabbed some of the papers there before pushing off towards his computer screen. Something on those papers caught his eye. Something vital and extremely important.

That was it.

Urahara quickly jumped up from his desk and headed over to a cluttered area of the room filled with beakers and test tubes. All of theses object held some sort of liquid or other foreign substance which bubbled and fizzed. Moving some of these vials out of the way, Kisuke started working with the others at a rapid pace.

While occasionally checking his documents and data on his compute, he worked, hard. He had to use his time wisely. Who knew how much he and everyone else had left before it all ran out and there was nothing more they could do. Every second was vital to his work and the situation. It was now a race to see who would make it to the finish line first.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Toushiro pushed himself as far and as fast as his body would allow. The buildings sped by in a blur with their colors and figures morphing together as one giant blob. That's what always happened when someone used shunpo. It always took the beauty out of the world for a moment. Despite this incredible speed, the two Shinigami no longer had the rampaging hollow in their sights; only in their senses now. How was he able to move so quickly?

Coming out of another shunpo, Toushiro realized with a start that his busty fukutaichou was no longer by his side. In fact, she was a couple buildings behind him. He cursed himself. He had been too preoccupied with his own thoughts that he had failed to notice his subordinate falling far behind. He needed to get himself together.

Matsumoto caught up to him after he drastically slowed down his pace. If she wasn't out of breathe before, she definitely was now. It looked like she was really appreciating the slower pace, at least for the moment.

"Taichou," she breathlessly said, "Do you think it would be a good idea to call for backup?"

"That would be a good idea and worth a try," Hitsugaya responded as he took out his communicator and flipped it open before calling headquarters.

The small cell phone like device rung in his ear as he waited for someone to answer on the other side. After what seemed like forever and a couple close calls on the building tops, someone finally responded on the other side of the line.

"Hello? Please give me a line to the Soutaichou. Inform him that it's extremely urgent," he spoke into the receiver as they continued hopping along. Not even a minute later, the old and wise voice of Yamamoto came into his ear.

"_Hitsugaya-taichou. What is it that you so desperately need to inform me about?" _he asked.

"Sir, it concerns the mission that my team and I are currently on regarding Kurosaki."

"_And that is…,"_ his voice trailed off at the end as he waited for an answer.

"I am requesting more help with this task because I don't think that I have enough as it is to complete it. You see sir, Kurosaki has turned into a complete hollow and we need more power to suppress him if possible. It would greatly assist us if you could send someone of captain class to come as backup for us," Toushiro explained.

There was a slight pause before Yamamoto spoke again, _"… I am afraid that I cannot comply with your request, Hitsugaya-taichou."_

"What? ! But why is that?" he stopped his travels to yell this into his communicator in disbelief. The last thing that he expected to hear was that nothing would be done to help them.

"_The reason behind my actions is that I cannot spare any of my soldiers at the moment because of a large scale riot on our hands. A popular gang in the Rukongai, commonly known as the Aka Chou's, _**[2]**_ have acted up and is causing major disturbances and problems throughout all of the Seireitei. It is taking everyone at the time to try and calm and settle this, even the taichous are too busy to take a break from their work," _the Soutaichou explained with a steady and somehow calm voice.

"But sir," Hitsugaya continued, "I'm not sure that we can handle our own situation as it is."

"_I am sorry, but you are going to have to find some way and use your resources to the fullest. Since you have told me of the young Kurosaki's condition, I will order you this: restrain him at all costs and I advice you that killing him is the best option. It is not the most favored decision, but we must handle this threat accordingly before it becomes too much. Go, and I wish you luck," _with that said, the line was disconnected, leaving Toushiro starring at the communicator in disbelief and anger.

"Taichou," Rangiku interjected, "What did the Soutaichou say? Is everything all right?"

Taking a deep breath before answering, the white haired boy turned to his comrade with shadowed eyes, "It looks like we're on our own. Come on, we'd better hurry and not waste any more time."

With that said, they started off once again, only this time with more determination at what lay before them, knowing that it was all up to them and the others to get the job done.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

With a racing heart, Rukia also followed the now familiar trail of devastation that always seemed to shadow Ichigo where ever he went, no matter how much he or everyone else tried to prevent it. Did everything bad _always_ have to happen to him? Why couldn't someone else carry the burden that weighed so heavily on his shoulders for once? It really frustrated her and just left her feeling helpless and… alone.

Another body passed by her that caused her to cringe. She didn't want to believe that Ichigo was the cause of all of this. He just couldn't be. Not the sweet, hard-headed person that she knew.

Renji looked over to her and saw the grave expression dressing her face. The site wrenched something in his chest and made him angry at the orange headed teen for making Rukia feel that way. How can he not even see all the things and signs Rukia gave off? When all of this was over, he was so going to kill that berry and teach him a lesson.

Something sparkled as it caught the light up ahead of him. Was that a… tear? Oh crap, Rukia was crying again!

Quickly coming over to her side, Renji laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Uh… it's okay Rukia," he said awkwardly, "I'll beat up that stupid strawberry for you so go ahead and just relax," for some reason, he had the feeling that he just said something wrong.

Rukia's form stiffened before slowly turning her head towards the paled pineapple with a look of pure death written in her eyes. That scared Renji into wanting to run away screaming like a little school girl.

"Are you suggesting that I'm weak and that I need you to fight my battles for me? Because that sure what it sounds like to me!" she grabbed the hilt of her zanpakuto.

"N-no, no, no, no!" Renji denied, waving his hands in front of himself frantically. The last thing that he needed was a pissed off Rukia, "I was just concerned is all!"

The petite woman slightly relaxed her grip and posture, straightening up a bit and looked forward again on their path. Letting out a breath of relief, Renji continued after her, although there was still an unspoken tension residing stagnantly in the air that was present ever since they began their search.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

He sat there on the side of the roof as he boredly rested his masked cheek on his pale hand. He had been waiting for those slow Shinigami for what seemed like ages now. The whole reason that he was sitting there was to include them in all of the _fun_ like the good sport he really was. But would it kill them to actually make an effort and get here faster? For supposedly alleged Shinigami, they were pretty damn slow.

He gave off a low growl out of annoyance and laid down on his back to stretch out for a couple minutes. Watching the two girls in the house doing basic household chores wasn't anymore entertaining, so he might as well rest up a bit. He started twirling a strand of hair in between his fingers for something to do. He would never understand how King could put up with it being such a bright color without doing something about it. It would sure solve some of his problems if he did. He kind of missed his own snow white hair a bit, but definitely not enough to go back into that horrid inner world for. He could deal with the neon orange color if it meant having control of the body. Everything else was pretty much the same after all, so it shouldn't be too hard to get used to some minor color differences.

He sighed as he got back up into a sitting position and scooted closer to the edge. There, he turned around with his back to the house and let his upper body fall backwards. Before he fell all the way, he caught himself with his legs and just hung off the edge of the building upside down while his hair swayed around him in a flowing motion and his arms limply lay below his head. This was a pose that he normally took when in King's mindscape. It always gave a different look to the scenery. It could be interesting at times as it somewhat was now.

Why couldn't those slow death gods hurry up already so that he could start? It was getting very boring just sitting, or more like lying, even though it had only been just over five minutes. He was getting rather restless with anticipation. His soon to be entertainment was just sitting there right before him basically calling out for him to get started. Taunting him with their delectable souls so full of life.

"**Urg! Hurry up! Could they go any slower?"** the hollow mumbled to himself. His head picked up when he _finally _felt that those idiots were close enough for him to begin. He smiled to himself as he brought his legs into himself and let his body fall towards the ground at a slow pace. Twisting acrobatically, he turned in the air so that he could land straight. His feet made contact with the ground in a surprisingly graceful manner, making no noise as he straightened up in seemly slow motion.

Taking light steps, he advanced towards the house and came up on the front door. He did something very unexpected then which is how he actually knocked on the door without breaking it or even damaging it in any way.

He stepped back slightly when the sound of someone turning the handle from the other side of the door came through. Opening it with a cheerful smile, little Yuzu appeared with innocent eyes. It took her a second to comprehend what was standing in front of her. A white demon was there in her doorway **[2].**

She staggered back in the entrance hall with wide eyes that couldn't tear from the being's form, her breathes came in short gasps.

"Yuzu, who's at the door?" Karin's voice asked from farther in the house. Her padded footsteps came and she looked at her petrified twin. She then followed her gaze only to see the same thing her sister had which had begun to enter the house. She was speechless. For some reason she had the feeling of familiarity when looking at this monster with a hole in its chest. Especially when she saw its orange hair sway behind it.

The two girls back stepped until they were both in the center of the living room. All the color had drained from their faces. What was this thing coming towards them and why was it here? Wait, didn't Ichigo deal with these monsters with the holes in their chests and white masks all the time? He could help them out now! But they didn't even know if he was home or not. It was never too late to check.

"Ichigo!" Karin yelled, "Please come help us!"

The hollow before them just started laughing at her cry, making him look even more evil than he already did. Why was he laughing at her for?

"What's so funny?" she bravely asked with a slight quiver in her voice.

"**I just think that it's funny how ya can't even recognize yer own brother,"** he spoke with a fake undertone of sadness.

"W-what? You're not Ichi-nii," Yuzu said with fear clearly heard.

"**Oh really?"** he raised a hand up to his mask and slowly started to lift it up. The face of Ichigo was revealed underneath although as white as a ghost with completely different eyes. The most drastic thing off was the crazy sadistic smile splitting his face. But there was no denying it. The monstrous creature before them was their brother, was Ichigo.

The girls took a step back in shock, not sure if what they were seeing was real or not.

"I-Ichi-nii? It can't be you, c-can it?" Yuzu stammered and fell down, not able to make her legs work correctly.

"**O' course it is. Now let's play a little game,"** he came up towards them again, reaching out a hand to each that grabbed them around the neck, lifting them off the floor,** "I promise it'll be fun."**

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Everyone is coming together, everything falling into place. The sword of fate has fallen and things and events have been set in motion.

The blonde and eccentric shop keeper working diligently in his study and lab working as fast and hard as he could manage. Desperately searching and experimenting to find the solution for the predicament everyone seemed to be dragged into.

A busty strawberry-blonde and her snow headed superior pushing themselves farther and faster to stop or even just stall the menace with the knowledge of no help coming their way.

Two very close friends trying to stop their friend from his slaughter before he could hurt anyone else, but having a little trouble getting there in time to do so.

And the hollow causing all of this chaos in the first place in his so called King's own home with unknown intentions towards the two venerable and defenseless girls inside.

All was coming together like the pieces of a puzzle. It was just a race of time to see who would get to their goal first.

Now, the countdown begins.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**[1]: Aka Chou means Red Butterflies, or at least I think it means that. I hope… ^^"**

**[2]: I made it so that Yuzu could see hollows too 'cause I figured that she would be able to eventually considering how much reiatsu Ichigo emits on a daily basis. It was just bound to happen some time.**

**A/N: I gotta say that writing that part with Hichigo and him just goofing around was really fun! That's really how I picture him acting when he's not in battles or just being a psychopath like normal. He reminds me of a little kid in a way. For the next chapter, there will be _way_ more action going on that will make you all pee your pants from the awesomeness! XD Well, hopefully not, but that'd be funny if it did!**

**Thanks to all of those who reviewed last time! They helped me to get this done faster than I normally do! Please review again and you may see the next action packed chapter sooner that way!~ Thanks for reading~ **


	18. Fated Battle

**Disclaimer: Why must I always say this and torture myself with the truth every time? Bleach does not belong to me people! I really wish it did though… *goes and cries in a corner***

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Gliding to a stop at the location where the hollowfied Ichigo's reiatsu was the strongest, Toushiro and Rangiku gathered up their bearings before they confronted the being. Although, when they realized that the hollow was most likely _in_ his own house, their hearts skipped a beat. It was late enough in the day for most of the school students to be home, which meant that the other Kurosaki's were in the house which the blood-thirsty demon was also residing. That wasn't good.

They rushed towards the opened door in the front of the house and burst into the entrance way, expecting to be immediately encountered. However, they were met with the eerily quiet silence with no other sounds coming to their ears except their own breathing and shuffling feet. This was rather suspicious in their opinion since it was just too quiet.

Moving with extreme caution towards the living area, the two kept their guard up and peaked around the corner with Toushiro in the lead. That was clear as well. The entire room seemed completely untouched from any outside source and only seemed as if it was just missing the presence of the living bodies that were normally found there. Although, taking a closer look at the scene, one could notice how one of the wooden chairs normally sitting up straight at the table had fallen over and that a small silver pot near the edge of the counter had been tipped over with a small amount of water leaking out over it. Some could consider that a possible sign of a struggle, but that was very unlikely with the little evidence and difference in the scene there. Other than that, everything appeared normal.

The two stealthily crept across the floor towards the middle of the room and looked around more in case there was anything that they missed. Checking over objects and constantly moving themselves around to not leave any openings to a possible unseen threat.

The sound of a drop falling and colliding with the ground and the slight smell of rich iron stung their senses. Looking towards the source, Hitsugaya found a small red drop staining the floor near the couch, vastly contrasting with the surrounding color scheme of the room. Another one fell in the same place, adding to the previous one and creating a growing puddle. More followed the others with their pace speeding up after each proceeding.

Bringing their gazes up to where those droplets were coming from, the two Shinigami saw the source of the constant flow. What they were presented with was a dark red stain on the once white part of the ceiling that kept increasing in size as it let parts of itself free to embrace the ground. That was blood coming down from the floor above. From what they were unsure, but they could make a grave assumption as to what.

Bolting up the stairs, taking multiple steps at a time, they went upstairs and searched for anything amiss or the blood source there. Quickly opening the doors one at a time, always with a guarded stance each instance, they continued looking. At a door near the end of a hallway, Rangiku found a horrible sight.

Ichigo's sisters were both lying face up on the floor with identical fresh wounds inflicted on them. Each had a gash on their stomachs from their left hips to below their right ribcages. It appeared to be very deep too, however not so much that it pierced many of the internal organs below.

Matsumoto rushed forward towards their unmoving bodies, dropping to her knees beside them. Immediately checking their vital signs, she breathed a pent up sigh of relief at how they still had a strong pulse. Their breathing was shallow though and raspy from the pain and their faces betrayed it too.

"How are they?" Toushiro asked from Rangiku's side, coming in just a few seconds ago. The sight of the two young girls lying wounded on the floor was horrible for him, especially since he had a connection with Karin from previous encounters.

"They aren't good, but they'll live," she replied. Placing one hand over each of the girls' middles, Rangiku started a healing Kido, causing her hands to glow a soft green. This would at least help stop the bleeding that seemed to have no end before they could bring them back to Uraharra's for proper treatment.

After a couple minutes of this, Karin's eyes began to open with a hazy look about them. She gave a stifled, strained groan when the pain registered with her. She still didn't like to show her pain to others. That was just like her.

"Shh…" Matsumoto gently said to her, "It's okay. We're here to help you two so you just rest, okay," she sounded just like a mother comforting her child.

The black haired twin gazed lazily at the woman above her before they glided over to look at another spot behind the two Shinigami. Her eyes widened in fear as her form began to shake.

Concerned, Rangiku leaned forward and voiced her opinion, "What's wrong? Are you in more pain?"

She didn't respond. Only her mouth started to move to form words. Eventually, she was able to speak.

"I-ii… chi… g-go," she silently said, "I-Ichi… g-go… Ichigo!" she screamed the last time. She started to scramble backwards on the floor, not caring or just not noticing that she was making her wounds worse.

Toushiro and Rangiku were confused about Karin's actions at first, but then they heard a heavy and deep breath accompanied by a low growl come from directly behind them. They quickly turned around and faced the hollow, whose mask was still off to the side of his head exposing his face, smirking devilishly at them. When did he sneak up on them? They didn't even hear or sense him there at all.

Coming around with both of their swords up to possibly and more tan likely defend the prone girls behind them, they prepared for the attack. Right at the exact moment where both weapons were in front of them, the hollow pounced. His own black zanpakuto clashed across theirs and sent sparks flying in all directions. He pushed on them so hard that they were thrown over the girls and through the wall their backs were facing.

Crashing through the plaster and wood, they skidded to a stop on the air outside. A couple cuts and scraps adorned them but nothing too bad considering that they just broke the wall with their bodies.

The hollow's silhouette appeared in the smoke created from the destroyed wall. It didn't stay there long before it came through and attacked Rangiku head on, not even coming close to Toushiro.

Black met silver in a flash as they had a small stand off in mid-air. Matsumoto's sword shook with strain from the power the hollow pushed on her. It was unlike anything she had felt; so raw, unwavering, and seemingly endless. It didn't last long until she was forced to give and release her sword from the struggle, jumping to the side to avoid the slash given.

"Unare, Haineko!" she commanded, zanpakuto transforming into a cloud of ash. It surrounded the white being in a blur, leaving no possible escape. He just stood their lazily as he watched the dangerous cloud spin around him, not making any move to defend himself. With just a flick of her wrist, it closed in.

His body could no longer be seen to the outside world and it looked as if he was taking on an extreme amount of damage. Or so it would seem. It only took a simple gesture of slashing his hand through the smog like weapon for it to completely obliterate it with his power. There was no mark on him what so ever. He was unscaved.

Two identical dragons of ice slammed into him. One from the left and the other from behind. They chomped down on his form with their razor sharp teeth, digging into his flesh before they threw him off to the side and into the street below.

A thundering clap was given off at his impact, sending debris soaring all around. Whole chunks of asphalt flew in the air and landed several buildings away. This sent anyone in the area that was still there out of curiosity fleeing in fear for their lives.

They braced themselves for they knew that an attack of that caliber would not finish the hollow off, but it would at least weaken him slightly. For a while, it was silent except for the faint scream of sirens in the background. Then his laugh broke that with a shrill tone. The dust cleared to reveal him standing in the rubble with no even a scratch on him. They stared incredulously at him, not believing what they were seeing. This creature was the very definition of a monster to them right now.

"**Finally someone at least hits me!"** he yelled at them, **"Yer startin' ta make this fun!"** he started bouncing on his feet with excitement, eager to see how much more 'potential' these characters had in them, **"Here we go!"** he shouted, then vanished from sight.

The only warning, if it could even be called that, that Toushiro got to the hollow's ware bouts was the intense pain and pressure on his upper back as he was pushed from behind. His body was sent straight down, just like how the hollow was before. Said demon stood in the air where Toushiro used to be with his sword drawn back above his head. It gathered black reiatsu around itself in a fiery mass before being brought down with a swing. A massive getsuga tenshou was released on the white-headed taichou before he had time to counter and he was hit head on with basically no time to escape the blast.

Right when his attack exploded, the hollow turned towards Rangiku and threw his sword directly at her abdomen area. She had nothing to block with for her zanpakuto was destroyed and it was just too fast for her to dodge. The weapon went straight through her stomach and forced her body backwards, pinning her to a building. The wound was very similar to Uryu's wound that he received from before, although that fact was not known by Rangiku at the time nor was it relevant. She coughed up blood as she clawed at the object impaling her, trying to get it out of her body to cause herself less pain and to free herself from more attacks.

She was able to glimpse an image of the hollow facing her with hazy vision. Although she couldn't tell if he was coming closer or just standing there waiting, neither one was very good, and she was beginning to feel herself loosing consciousness due to the pain and blood loss.

"Bankai! Daiguren Hyourimaru!" the shout sounded from below. A wave of ice assaulted the hollow and prevented him from advancing any further. Toushiro appeared in the air with dragon-like ice wings on his back, three floating flowers, and his hands and feet covered in the frozen substance.

Raising his zanpakuto high in the air, he shouted the command, "Sennen Hyoro!" many ice pillars grew up in the small space available and entrapped the hollow from escaping. They spun in a clockwise direction, coming closer together with each rotation until, with a twist of his sword, Toushiro brought them all in on each other, crushing all in the middle of their midst.

The silence that ensued there after was not very comforting. Toushiro could just feel how that could not hold the hollow long, so he quickly flew over to where his wounded and struggling fukutaichou was pinned. He pulled on the sword lodged in her stomach and tried to take it out, but it wouldn't budge, no matter how much strength he used.

By now, Rangiku had basically passed out, just managing to hold onto consciousness by a thread. The blood seeping from her was dripping down the brick wall behind her. It looked like an artist took a wet paintbrush, stroked up the side of the building and just pinned her at the top, calling it good.

The cracking glass told Hitsugaya that his prison was breaking and that he needed to hurry up. Giving one last tug on the weapon, he managed to dislodge it, only to have it fly at high speeds towards the pillars.

Catching the blacked out Matsumoto, he watched as the sword broke through the ice with no resistance. It was caught by a clawed white hand whose body soon followed it. The hollow shook off the remaining ice still left on his figure, patting down his shoulders. He gave a sideways glace at the two Shinigami before looking back down at his sword in hand. He started spinning it by the chain, watching it as it spun in circles, before catching it and sonidoing over to the short taichou.

Toushiro blocked with one hand, skidding back with Rangiku's form lying limp in his arms. Batting his wings ferociously, he tried to push back or at least stop his advance backwards. It was very difficult to fend off the demon while trying to make sure that his subordinate didn't fall or to get injured in the process.

The hollow leaned in close to his opponent, getting fairly close to his face, displaying his cold, yellow eyes. He pulled back his face and kicked Toushiro in the abdomen, sending him flying back again. He wasn't able to hold onto the strawberry-blonde when kicked and watched through squinted eyes as she fell down to the cold and devastated ground. He was helpless to come to her aid before she hit or the hollow got her.

A figure with extremely red hair flashed by the ground, picking Matsumoto up with them on the way. Immediately after, a wave of snow assaulted the hollow who was just watching everything with amusement the whole time, and buried him underneath.

Renji and Rukia appeared at Toushiro's side seconds later via shunpo, alert and ready for action. The white ribbon on Rukia's released zanpakuto trailing behind in the breeze and Renji bringing his weapon to the same released state, his sword's teeth like blades glinting in the sun.

"I took Matsumoto to a building top that should be far enough away to not be in danger of stray attacks or debris," Renji informed his superior.

"Just tell us what you need us to do, Hitsugaya-taichou," Rukia said without emotion.

"Right. I want Kuchiki to distract him once he comes out of that snow pile, which shouldn't take long. And I want Abarai to assist me in detaining him. You'll take the left and I the right and we'll come from behind him where he's not expecting. Now, prepare yourselves. He's coming," Toushiro instructed as he readied his sword.

Nodding their heads in agreement, they took their stances. Rukia moved away from the others to prepare her distraction and they did the same for the part.

The pure white snow that blanketed the ground up to most of the building tops began to glow a bright red in a specific spot, growing exponentially in size. The red burst through in the form of a cero, shooting off into the sky, but not before melting away nearly all the snow in the vicinity because of its heat given off. After the blast cleared, Hollow Ichigo stood in the center of the street with small drops falling off his clothes and hair. He did look very pleased with the current situation, although he did seem a little upset for some reason.

He locked eyes with Rukia, off to the side from the others, and starred intently into her eyes. She could see the golden yellow bearing holes into her own. It was captivating yet terrifying at the same time; a deadly combination. She didn't let herself be distracted by that though, and instead brought her sword up to perform her part of the quick plan that they had thought up in the short amount of time given.

"Some no mai, Tsukishiro!" she commanded and a glowing circle appeared below the hollow's feet. Not even seeming to take any notice of the attack in progress, he just kept starring at the petite girl, his gaze never breaking once.

When the ice pillar came into existence and cleared, nothing was found inside its transparent depths. The hollow appeared at Rukia's left, leaning down close to her ear.

"**Did ya really think that weak little attack would hurt me?"** he mockingly said to her, disappearing again before she could hit him when she swiped her sword in his direction.

"**Or were ya just trying ta distract me so that those fools over there could attack me instead?"** he said now from behind her. She could practically feel the laugh and smirk in his voice.

When she turned around to see the monster, he was no where to be seen. She jumped and froze when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She could feel his breathe on her check as he spoke again.

"**Ya know, I wasn't finished with ya from the last time we had the pleasure of meetin'."**

She didn't know what to do. She couldn't move. Weren't the others supposed to attack him too? What happed to them? Her questions were answered by the voice that was like music to her ears.

"Hikotsu Taihou!"

"Hyoru Senbi!" the familiar calls went through the air. Renji's large bankai released a red blast from its mouth and Toushiro's sword a crescent of ice that was directed at the hollow. However, at the path the attacks were on now, it would also hit Rukia as well, but they had thought at the time that she would have moved by then, or that she would doge. She couldn't do either for the hollow still had a firm grip on her shoulder, preventing her from moving. The approaching powers came speeding towards them both, with them not making any move to escape.

Slashing the ice coming their way with a getsuga and then stabbing his black zanpakuto in the ground, the hollow held up one of his hands not holding Rukia and took the blast in it. He was actually able to prevent the blast from moving any further. He simply flicked his wrist to the side and it was diverted, not laying a scratch on either one of them.

Renji and Toushiro looked in astonishment at the moves the hollow just preformed. He paid them no heed as he drew his attention back to the girl in his grasp.

"**Why don't we finish what we started now that yer all getting' serious finally,"** he drawled, apparently addressing all of them. He brought his free hand up to his mask, still somehow not moved from the side of his head, and brought it back down to be placed correctly. His eyes showed through the sockets as his reiatsu sky rocketed, gaining a new level of power. So he was just playing with them all up until now? If that was the case, then how were they going to survive him at this level?

The now battle-ready hollow picked up his sword from the ground and started spinning it by the chain once more. He gazed out at the other two and the one nearest him who were all visibly straining against the pressure his reiatsu was pushing on them. He caught the zanpakuto by the handle and raised it high into the air.

"**Let's get started then,"** he basically purred before bringing his sword down on the girl in his arms.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: Phew! I wrote all of this today basically! That's a whole six pages on Word. My brain hurts… Since I wrote all of this so fast, I really don't feel like proof-reading it, so sorry if there are any mistakes in here. Just deal with them if there are any.**

**So, how did you like this chapter? I loved all of the action I wrote and it was so much fun to think of different things for them all to do. Action scenes can get really hard to write at times, so I would really appreciate feedback on how it turned out if you guys could. **

**Thanks for reading and please review once you're done! If you do, then I'll give you a cookie~ *waves around a bear jar filled with sugar cookies* Until next time~ ^w^**


	19. The End Of All Hope

**A/N: I have three letters for you all: SAT. I had to take those stupid and completely mind numbing tests last week and it _sucked!_ They were practically made to try and make us fail, although I still think, or hope, that I did well. That's one of my excuses for this chapter being late. My other one is that I had to get a bunch of crap ready for this stupid Economics Summit thing that I had to do which was also mind numbing, stressful, and basically pointless. Urg, my head _still_ hurts from all of this stuff I've had to do in the past two weeks. Or was it three? Well crap, I can't even remember now! Shows how much sleep I've lost! XD Okay, let's get to the stuff that actually matters. This chapter is violent and gruesome as well, just like the last. There may be some scenes in here that you might get pissed off on just to tell you. **

**Warning: this chapter contains character death. I'm not saying who, so you'll just have to read to find out. ;D**

**Disclaimer: It really sucks that I have to say this _every time_, but I must sadly inform you readers that I do not own the amazing anime or manga that is Bleach. The world is so cruel!**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

"_**Let's get started then,"** he basically purred before bringing his sword down on the girl in his arms._

Everything slowed down from Rukia's perspective. Even her own rash actions appeared sluggish, but her thoughts were normal and speeding through her head one after another.

'_I'm going to die. Ichigo… Ichigo is going to kill me. It's just like with Kaien. I deserve this for everything I've done to both of them, especially Ichigo. I could have helped him, but now I can only watch as his zanpakuto comes closer to kill me. I'll die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die!'_ she was beginning to become frantic in her thoughts.

The sword's edge was nearly upon her now, but she had accepted her fate. She could see Renji and Toushiro trying to speed to her rescue off in front of her. They wouldn't make it. Anyone could see that.

Rukia could see the sword reflecting her eyes back to her now. She looked terrified. At least it would all be over soon. Right, it was all going to end for her here and now. And, she could do nothing about it…

The pain of death never came and a clang of metal striking metal was heard directly above her head. Rukia squinted through her closed eyes – when did she shut them in the first place? When she could see, she laid eyes on a spear head halting the path of the sword above her, keeping it from progressing any farther on its path. This spear belonged to none other than the well known bald Shinigami, Ikkaku. He was the one who just saved Rukia's life in the nick of time.

Rukia couldn't believe her eyes. Right when she had accepted her fate, her decision had been changed for her. Maybe it was for the best through. She could use this chance to help make things right.

Ikkaku smirked at the masked hollow with the lust for battle written all over his face. The promise for a good fight was highly probably for him with how everything else turned out. He would enjoy this even if it killed him.

"You guys started all the fun without me!" he said, addressing the three behind him, now including Yumichika who had his sword released to the four blade form, while still facing the hollow in front of him.

Madarame caused his zanpakuto to break into three segments, still holding the hollow at bay with the spear head. The end section came around from the other side of the demon and just about hit him in the head. It would have too if he hadn't let his grasp on Rukia go and sonido out of the way. Said girl stumbled when she wasn't being help up any longer, but was able to regain her balance and jump back a couple of paces to give some space between herself and the enemy. She looked at him with a myriad of conflicting emotions. Some of those included confusion, self-loathing, worry, and most of all fear.

She shook her head to clear her mind. She couldn't let her feelings affect her like this. It wasn't like her. It would also affect her performance in battle and could cost her dearly. She just needed to burry them all deep down to not hinder her anymore. She was a Kuchiki after all, so it should be second nature to her by now.

While Rukia was having this internal struggle momentarily, the hollow and Ikkaku had something of a stare-off. Madarame was getting tired of just standing there as he waited for his opponent to make a move. All the hollow was doing right now was giving him a calculating look with his head cocked slightly to the side. After a couple seconds of this, his shoulders started to shake, greater with every passing moment. Eventually, his deep, echoing laughter filled the area and Ikkaku couldn't help but question his actions.

"Oi, what's so funny?" he asked as he deepened his stance just in case it was some form of diversion to catch him off guard.

"**I just thought that it must really be my lucky day ta have all these Shinigami here ta fight me, willin' ta die so easily. I must thank ya all for this wonderful gift,"** the hollow said, making Ikkaku bristle.

"If you're saying that I'm weak, then I am going to kick your ass so hard!" he threatened.

"**Go ahead an' try if ya can! I'll even give ya an advantage. I won't move from this spot or be on the offense fer one minute, but then I get ta start attackin' too. This way, the fun will last a little longer,"** giving his terms for their brawl, the hollow planted his feet shoulder length apart and signified that Ikkaku could attack whenever he so pleased.

"You're going to regret underestimating me like that," Madarame smirked as he charged at the monster with full speed. He brought his reconstructed spear up to strike the beast's head. He swung with incredible force that would normally not be expected out of a regular third seat officer, but he presented this strength anyways. His zanpakuto was abruptly stopped by the hollow's forearm up to block the attack. He looked at the bald Shinigami with laughing eyes.

That didn't even faze Ikkaku as he just jumped backwards and began his assault once more; attacking from every angle possible while the white devil deflected each one without effort. They were both enjoying this by the looks of it.

The brawling continued as the others simply watched, out of the odd request from Yumichika, and used this time to catch their breath. After all, the hollow said that he wouldn't attack for a minute, so they should use the time given to them wisely.

"So how did you guys know where to find us?" Renji asked. The others could have face palmed at his question at the time. Of all things to ask in the middle of a battle, he chooses that to say.

"Well," Yumichika started. Toushiro could only wonder why he was actually going to answer the idiotic question, "We quickly finished up gathering the survived vizords, including a grotesquely huge man who was disgusting to touch, and found that only about half of them survived. There after, we felt a huge amount of reiatsu coming from far off in the direction that everyone else headed off to. Now, with Ikkaku's lust for battle and never liking to be left out of the fight, he started cussing like he always does while talking about how 'he wouldn't just sit there while everyone else had fun.' Then he ran off so I naturally had to follow him. We found you three after a few minutes and Ikkaku rushed to engage that hollow without hesitating. So, here we are now," he summed up their little 'adventure' with more detail then was necessary, but at an astonishing rate, saying most of it all with only two breaths.

By now, a tick mark was placed on Toushiro's forehead. He was angered that they were wasting their time recounting pointless events when they could be spending it doing something that was of actual use to them.

"Will you just shut up? !" he yelled, now frankly pissed, "We need to be discussing our _current_ situation and our next plan of action while we still can.

"Oh, right. Sorry… " Renji said, rubbing the back of his head nervously. Yumichika didn't really care about being yelled at and merely started looking at his nails.

"Now, we should-"

He didn't get to barely begin his thought because, back with the battle still taking place near them, the hollow had caught the spear in his hand and smiled, seeing that he did by his mask literally curving up with his mouth. It gave him an even more evil look to him, which didn't even seem possible beforehand.

"**Time's up!"** he yelled, causing the 'discussion' the others were having to come to an abrupt halt.

During the minute given, Ikkaku had not even applied any damage to the orange-headed hollow, or moved him an inch from his designated spot for that matter.

The unfaltering grip on his spear increased, causing the spot where the hand was tightening to begin to crack and splinter. Ikkaku desperately attempted to pull his zanpakuto free from the death grip with no success. It wouldn't budge. He even tried kicking the hollow in the arm and chest, but his efforts all went in vain. With one last flex of his hand muscles, the weapon was completely broken at the spot and fragments scattered in every way possible.

Ikkaku felt the pain from his zanpakuto through their unbreakable spiritual bond and he grunted while grounding his teeth through it. He attempted to step backwards, but he soon found himself flying through the air and into the rest of the team behind him from being hit with a head on cero.

He, as well as Yumichika and Renji, picked themselves off the ground. Ikkaku's chest and most of his upper body was burnt, along with his kimono and almost all of his skin was dripping blood from the spot of impact. The edges of the wound were colored a charred black from the burn and looked revolting and painful. He stumbled when on his feet again and fell onto his hands and knees from the dizziness and weakness that slapped him in the face with the sense of vertigo.

When finally able to gather his bearings and get up without falling over, he witnessed how his comrades had already engaged the hollow who had temporarily disabled him from the sudden attack. They all fought their hardest against the beast, but it didn't appear to be doing anything to him. Rukia was sender wave after wave of ice at him which was always blown away effortlessly. Yumichika waited for the small openings – never really true or genuine since the hollow would never allow himself to be truly vulnerable – and struck out with his blades that either hit empty air or bounced off with a clang. Toushiro and Renji fervently assaulted him and maneuvered around with swift movements, doing no good in the long run, but still not giving up. None of them were. No matter what the odds looked like, they kept pushing forward in the hope that they could somehow overcome the impossible task set before them.

Now it was Ikkaku's turn to join the fray, even though he was pretty much weaponless and wouldn't dare to reveal his bankai with so many witnesses around. Like he really cared. He would enter the fight even if all he had was his hands and feet to arm him. And he did just that.

With an insanely gleeful sounding battle cry, Madarame charged in straight with what little of what was left of his zanpakuto held high over head ready to strike. There was no way in hell that he was going to let a great fight stare him in the face when he could join it. So what if he probably didn't have very high chances of living through this with how everything had gone for them. He didn't care. As long as the enemy delivered a good fight through it all, then he'd be fine with dieing. He was now only a few meters away from the best who had just caught Toushiro's sword and threw it, along with the owner, into a building. He smiled like the battle crazed maniac he was and jumped into the air wile simultaneously bringing his weapon down.

He was stopped dead in his tracks as a deathly white and clawed hand wrapped tightly around his neck. He was being held above the ground with his legs not touching, thrashing to get freed from the hold. All of his air was being cut off, leaving him struggling to take in any into his steadily burning lungs. His own hands clawed at the one holding him, the broken spear that was in them fallen to the ground.

A wave of ice rapidly began to approach in his now fading vision, but it was obliterated when the hollow choking him merely pointed his sword at the frozen water and charged a red cero on the tip of it which, when released, sent the attack into nothingness. The energy blast continued through to the one who sent the weak attack and narrowly missed directly hitting them. If the petite black haired girl hadn't jumped to the side at the last second, then the cero would have probably killed her, but she managed to fall to the side with just an injured arm.

The hollow managed to do all of this without even looking, never taking his gaze off of the struggling man in his hands. His attempts to be freed were becoming weaker with every passing second and his eyelids were slowly starting to close over the black orbs beneath them.

Right before he blacked out from lack of oxygen, he found himself able to gasp in a deep breath of air due to how the grip pressing incredible force on his trachea let up just enough for air to pass through his pipes. He took the breathes he greedily sucked in gratefully, but was aware of how he was still in the hollow's grip above ground level.

Before he had the time to question why the monster allowed him to breath, he was slammed into the jagged and rocky terrain underneath back first. It knocked whatever air he had acquired out of his lungs.

Ikkaku squirmed in the small crater that his body now laid in. His eyes landed on the masked face just over him that leered quietly at him. He knew what the beast was going to do now. It was pretty obvious, at least to him.

He stopped his struggle and gave one last smile as he looked back into the hollow's glowing eyes.

"Thanks for the fight," he said without remorse.

A faint and pleased chuckled escaped from the creature, **"It was my pleasure."**

Ikkaku's throat was now on fire with pain he was utterly familiar with. Although, it soon started to ebb away as quickly as it came. He could vaguely feel a hot substance stream down from his neck and mouth. It only took a few seconds, a few precious seconds that he enjoyed to the very end.

His world turned black and he knew no more.

The hollow stood over the recently deceased and stilled corpse who had just had his throat ripped out; trachea, esophagus, and other flesh there torn to shreds by the razor sharp claws like butter. His hand dripped with fresh blood, staining the white skin a bright crimson. Not a moment after the kill was complete did a rage filled scream sound behind him that belonged to the infuriated Yumichika, echoing of the desires for revenge.

The feathered Shinigami flew at the murderous hollow with speed never seen from him before. The rage at his best friend's death fueled him.

"No, wait!" Toushiro desperately tried to stop the raging fifth seat from doing something so rash as charging head on. Doing that while blinded by furry with _this _hollow was a death wish.

The orange-headed hollow flashed up to Yumichika in an instant with his bright hair whipping behind him. The usually calm and self-absorbed man didn't even register that the demon was directly in front of him until he felt a burning sting coming from his chest. Looking down slowly, he saw how the black sword the beast wielded had implanted itself vertically through his torso. The hollow had managed to stab the man in the diaphragm and then twisted his sword upwards so that it traveled up through the cavity of his chest. It had pierced his lungs, stomach, and heart. All of it happened in an instant.

And an instant later, his life slipped from his as his heart stilled and he joined the path this bald comrade had just recently traveled.

The now quiet man slumped over on the sword impaling him, his limp arms falling to his side as his zanpakuto fell from his grip to the hard ground. It clanged as the metal bounced off the malformed rocks before glowing white and changing back to its original form for the last time.

The hollow cruelly pushed the dead warrior off his bloodied weapon with his foot and licked the blade's length. He looked over lazily as two large creatures approached him, one a baboon snake and the other an ice dragon that both circled around each other as they barreled down on him.

He brought his zanpakuto from his mouth and cocked it behind him as he prepared to strike. The weapon began to quickly gather black and red tainted reiatsu, compressing and storing it for the attack. Just when the two synchronized beasts of different natures were almost upon him, he lowly whispered two words that were fatal to enemy ears.

"**Getsuga Tenshou."**

He brought his sword, flaming reiatsu, and swung in front of him, releasing the stored attack. The result was catastrophic.

An enormous wave of black swirling destruction crashed into the beastly weapons and caused them to shatter on contact. The ice melted away momentarily after and the baboon snake broke apart in small pieces that could never be put back together, scattering about the battle area. The reiatsu attack didn't just stop the ones approaching its sender, but also blew away a great deal of the landscape it passed. Rocks were sent flying and into the sides of already breaking buildings. Homes nearby, thankfully evacuated by the common sense of the humans that were there before the fight had broken out for reasons unknown to them, had completely ceased to exist from the raw power pounding on them. The attack had also sent a wind powerful enough to knock people down crashing over the three remaining Shinigami in the area.

It devastated _everything._

An attack that was carelessly – effortlessly – tossed out by its wielder like it was nothing; that left a path of destruction in its wake unlike any other.

Toushiro looked up from his position on the rubble covered ground and set his eyes upon the hollow. He was able to make out the beast's form even through all the dust that clouded the area – slowly clearing – thanks to how much his nearly pure white body contrasted with the surroundings. He looked… ecstatic. No hint of wariness or other form of emotion clawed across his features, just the pure joy at how much _fun_ he was having.

'_How… _How_ could he not even be slightly tired from giving an attack of that caliber? He truly is a monster,'_ Toushiro thought with a hint of fear. There was no possible way that they could all defeat this hollow, even with the best strategic plan in the world or all of Soul Society. Maybe the Soutaichou could take him, but he might even have trouble with this _thing._

But how could he just give up? There were hundreds, thousands of lives at stake right now and it was his job – no, duty – to protect each and every one of them, no matter what he had to go through to ensure their safety.

Maybe he just wasn't thinking this through right. There must be something that he overlooked that could help give them an advantage in the fight, couldn't there? Yes, there had to be.

Hitsugaya began standing back up, seeing that to his right Renji was doing the same. He couldn't find where Rukia was at the moment, but he knew that she had enough battle experience to be able to avoid and survive the last attack. She may not have gone unscaved, but she would survive, that much he was sure of.

Returning his thoughts and attention back to the threat in front of him, Toushiro took a battle-ready position with is sword placed to be able to either block or attack at a moments notice. The hollow, now clearly visible, saw this and turned his full attention towards the short boy, leering at him through the holes in his mask.

'_Analyze him,'_ Toushiro thought to himself, _'Calmly asses everything about him and you can fight him. Find his weakness and use it. Just_ think.'

Without warning, the hollow vanished from view. This sent Hitsugaya's battle senses flaring as he and Renji desperately searched for his location. He soon found out where he was when Renji gave a cry of pain and fell down face first.

The hollow stood behind the red head with a tilted head as he looked at the wound he had just inflicted. A deep gash was present on Renji's back from where he was sliced, traveling from his right shoulder blade to the top of his left hip, oozing blood like a fountain. His spine could be seen, glimmering white with splotches of red, intact somehow despite the odds. The wound had caused him to almost immediately black out, which he had.

Toushiro barely even gave any of this thought as he ducked under the hollow's reach and came up with the intent of sticking him across the abdomen. It was in times like this that he was glad for his small demeanor as it allowed him to slip though defenses and hit where it was most important.

This was not one of those times.

His blade struck nothing but empty air as it completely its swing. He was confused at first with this, but soon forgot about it when he felt something break in his elbows and knees along with a tearing sensation.

His form crumpled to the ground without the means to support itself. He was able to somehow realize through the pain that his bones at his joints were shattered. Not only that, but he was unable to move anything below his knees and elbows. That must have meant that the tendons and muscles connecting there were cut, leaving a great part of his limbs unresponsive. He wouldn't be able to fight now.

Footsteps could be heard crunching the rubble away from him and steadily growing ever so slightly fainter. Of course the demon wouldn't finish him off now. He couldn't fight back and would therefore be no more _fun_ to him. All he could do now was lay there on the ground and wait for either something to happen, or for everything to end.

"**Ya can come out now, or do ya want me ta come an' getcha myself?"** the hollow teased, laughing to himself at the thought.

The shuffling of feet was the only sound for a few seconds before a dirtied Rukia decided to emerge from her cover of broken wall. It appeared as if she was waiting to attack the creature before she was found out.

Before she could move away, she was startle by the buzz of sudden appearance of the hollow standing only inches from her. He lifter her head up by the chin with two of his fingers so she was forced to look directly into his eyes. She was frozen in fear. There was nothing she could do to defend herself or harm the beast. _Nothing._ And he knew it too.

"**Now that no one can interrupt us anymore, let's continue where we started."**

Without her moving from her position locked in his eyes, the hollow removed his hand from under her chin and, surprisingly, gently laid the tips of his fingers on the center of her chest, right above her frantically beating heart.

"**Let's see how pretty ya look, painted in red."**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: Phew, that one was _long!~_ I'm pretty proud of it though and I like how it turned out in the end. *Proudly puts hands on hips and takes a superhero stance with a rainbow swirling in the background* Oh, let me just say that to those who are fans of Ikkaku and, for some reason, Yumichika, then I am SORRY! I didn't even plan on killing them off, but I just kept writing and it turned out that way somehow. Hehe… ^^" Still, it fits the story, at least in my opinion that is. **

**Oh, and also, probably all of you are going to be pissed about what I'm going to be doing in the next chapter 'cause of that huge cliffhanger. But I'm not gonna say what~ *Troll face* Either that or you'll love it completely. I'm not really sure.**

**I've also like to inform you all that I have everything from this point out planned out to the end with almost every detail, so there shouldn't be too long of a wait for the next chapter, at least I hope there isn't. By the looks of things, there should be about three or four more chapters left and then this story is done! Yes, that may be saddening, but you'll understand and love me and hate me at the same time when we get to the end 'cause I've got a surprise for all of ya there! ;D**

**Now that my insanely long author's note is just about over with, I'd like to kindly ask all of you who have read this to please REVIEW! I seriously without a doubt need those to help me write. If I don't have them, then I just don't feel the need to write as much, but when I get a ton I write like the crazy little demon that I truly am inside! So please review and set the demon free!~ If you do, then you can have an earlier chapter as well as a whole basket full of cupcakes! Come on~ You know you want to. They even have sprinkles on them!**

**Well, thanks for reading and I'll see you all next time! ^^**


	20. Behind The Scenes

**A/N: I gotta say that I'm a little saddened by the low numbers of reviews that I got. Don't get me wrong, I completely love and greatly appreciate the people who did take the time to review, I just would hope that there would have been a little more. Sorry about that; I just needed to get that out there. **

**Okay, so for this chapter you are, again, going to either love and/or hate me for. What I mean by this, you'll soon find out by reading ahead. Enjoy~**

**Disclaimer: Me no own the awesomeness that is Bleach.**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Endless darkness.

That was all that could be seen anywhere. The pitch blackness that surrounded everything enclosed all within its endless depths, suffocating anything unlucky enough to be caught up in its presence. It seemed never-ending, no matter where one looked.

This was where the limp, unconscious body wearing almost neo-orange colored, spiky hair was found. He alone floated in this spacious yet claustrophobic environment, completely unaware of everything around him. His mind still had yet to awaken from its slumber, his body in the same state as well. He was so far unknowing of the state and location that he was in, but perhaps that was for the best in all truth.

A twitch of his muscles came through his form and was quickly calmed after only a split second. That was one of the signs that signified how he was close to waking. The other was the strained groan that was partially muffled in his throat, making it come out broken and barely audible, although there was no one else around to detain that sound to their ears.

Slowly, his chocolate brown eyes opened up and wearily looked around at a molasses' pace in the darkness surrounding him. His orbs held confusion at not understanding where he was or why. As he started to more fully wake up, he began to look and feel more panicked at the endless blackness that help nothing surrounding him. Something didn't feel right about it. He just got an uneasy sensation when looking at it, feeling it all around him, pressing against his form.

He tried to move, to get to some place that wasn't here. But all his efforts to even move went in vain; wasted. It was like he was paralyzed in place, unable to do any thing except move his eyes and breathe. Suspended in the blackness, almost like he was floating stilly in water. When you moved in the liquid substance, you could feel it slide across your body, but when you stilled yourself and just let it surround you, it almost felt like it wasn't even there. Almost. Its presence was still there're, just not as strong, intensifying when you moved even barely. That's what it felt like right now for the young man trapped there, although slightly more terror and fear was present in this unfortunate situation.

Suddenly, and out of no where, he had the dragging, pulling sensation when one falls tugging at his body. Such a strange thing to happen when no surroundings were whizzing past or the sound of the wind raring in your ears.

There wasn't much time to ponder these small thoughts though as a blindingly bright flash of light took over his vision, forcing him to abruptly shut his eyes tightly. Not being able to see anything, he wasn't able to perceive what he slammed up against with the front of his body, making contact with something solid, flat, and hard.

A stifled gasp was made that was quickly snuffed out like a match as the wind was knocked out of the lean teenager. Rolling onto his side with some effort, he tried to regain his breath from the sudden impact. It took several long minutes before that happened. Once it did, the teen was able to comprehend the aching pain his body was in.

It had gone unnoticed before because of the inability to move beforehand in the dark void, but now it hit him head on. He felt like he had just ran a marathon and bathed in fiery acid with how all his muscles, every single on of them, burned as if from severe overuse and that his skin felt like it was being torn away in fragments.

The pain was bad, yes, but it wasn't unbearable. He had gone through and dealt with much worse before, although this wasn't welcomed or something to just simply brush off to worry about later. But, he could deal with it.

Taking some now steady, deep breaths to further calm his shaking body down, he began to push himself up onto his hands and knees with some effort. Once he was able to accomplish getting to that state, he finally started to pry open his stinging eyes.

The first thing that assaulted his vision was more white. The instant and blatant color forced him to close his burning eyes again and for him to rest a tan hand against his throbbing head. Okay, not the smartest thing. Slower this time, he attempted to let his eyes adjust to the lighting of where he was at and found it easier this time by doing it at that pace. He was eventually able to perceive everything around him without pain and saw where it was he had been forcefully thrown into.

He sat, now cross-legged, in the center of an almost pure white room. Nearly everything was white: the floor, the ceiling, and the walls. The only things not stained by the pure color was the trimming and two square areas on one of the walls. The trimming, located at both the top and bottom of the walls, was a glossy black that highly contrasted with the white surrounding it. The other source of actual color in the room the teenager found, besides his own garments' colors, on the wall was a more dull black that wasn't all smooth like the paint around it. It was curious to look at, so the still dazed male started to make his way over to the square sections.

He stoop up, a little wobbly at first, and walked over to the part of the room where they were. He stumbled over his own feet more than once, but somehow managed to make it over there without falling back down. Bracing himself on the wall with his hands to steady his form, he examined the odd looking black material covering it.

It almost seemed like paint at first with an odd texture to it, but with closer inspection he found that it was actually a type of adhesive material similar to duct tape. There were really many separate strands covering those sections, giving it a more uneven crisscrossed pattern to it, almost like someone hastily slapped them on their instead on making it more even like the rest of the room was.

The question that surfaced in his mind was what was behind this tape-like material? What was it hiding? The only thing that came to mind were window because of how it was slightly indented were the tape was within the square perimeter and also because of how there wasn't really anything else it could be. But why would someone cover up the windows so hastily? Whoever did it must have not wanted anyone in the room, namely him, to see whatever was outside for some unknown reason.

Wait…

The orangette suddenly thought of something. Why was he even in this odd room in the first place? He had no recollection of why he would be there or how he got there. The last thing he remembered before waking up here was a mop of blonde hair and–

He dropped to his knees, clutching his head in stern hands, and ground his teeth as the images of memories played in his head forcefully. Crawling in the streets, walking into people who couldn't see him, lying on the floor of a warehouse, and lastly, and blonde figure above him before he was surrounded in pain from his chest and then… nothing but black.

Letting his hands fall away from his head, he took shaky breaths. That's right. His hollow was trying to take over so he went to the vizards for help. But the hollow took control in the end anyways and he didn't know what happened after that except for coming into consciousness in this place.

So, that must mean that this place, or room, was a part of his inner world or something along those lines. Although, he had never been to this part of it in the past which was strange.

Maybe if he got out of this room, then he could get to where he was familiar with and possibly find Zangetsu to ask what was going on. That seemed like a reasonable plan for now.

Checking the near colorless room over, he searched for an exit that would bring him outside, only he had a small problem on his hands when he did that.

There was no door.

He stumbled into a run and came to the empty walls. His hands felt up and down their surfaces for any form of crack or sign of escape, but came out with none. The walls were completely bare and smooth with no exit present on them.

That was a definite problem. How in the world was he supposed to get out if there was no means to do so? Unless… the windows!

He came up to each of them in turn as well, coming across the same situation of no cracks or form to look out or get out from them. He even tried to pick at the tape covering them to try and see outside at the very lest, but even that effort proved to be in vain.

Stepping away from the blockaded windows, he starred at the entire room with a look of confusion, anger, and slight fear ant his predicament. Suddenly, he felt all of his energy leave him and was in turn washed in exhaustion. The pain in his body he had pushed away somehow earlier came back in full force as well. Both of these factors contributed to him collapsing on the white floor in a heap, slumping to his side.

The colors, though not very abundant in his confinement, began to blur together slightly with the white and blacks mixing in places. His whole head was spinning. How was any of this possible right now? Oh, how much he wanted to get out of this cage and… and… what? What was he going to do again after he got out? What use would whatever it was he would do be anyways?

A dark and hysterical laughter echoed throughout the room, reverberating off the walls and never sinking in volume. The sudden voice brought the teen's head snapping up quickly as he whipped hit back and forth to figure out where this voice was coming from, not his own but at the same time was.

It wouldn't cease, and, if anything, got louder and more maniacal every second it continued. It was frightening. _Terrifying _to say the least. The brown eyed teen, with wide eyes, had the image of his hollow engraved into his head at the sound and immediately started to recoil from it.

Scampering backwards with as much speed that he could muster, he pushed his back against the wall in an attempt to evade the voice that way. After what the monstrous, white skinned hollow had already put him through in just the last week, he didn't wasn't to imagine what he was going to do now, especially in his more venerable state. The very thought caused him to shudder in fear.

He was now in a corner near the blocked windows with his legs drawn up into himself and his hands desperately pressing against his ears in a failing attempt to block, or at the last muffle, the voice penetrating them. His entire figure began to uncontrollably shake and he began to pull at his bright orange locks in vain. If this went on any longer, than he would either go insane or kill himself just to end it all.

He didn't do either of those options as, abruptly, the laughter stopped all at once just as quickly as it started.

It took him a few moments to even realize this before he cautiously lifted his hands off his ears and his head up to look at the empty room that held no one else but himself. Was the monster going to leave him alone then, or was it just a scheme to distract him to bring his guard down? He couldn't be sure, but he hoped with all his being that it was the former of his thoughts.

Today wasn't his lucky day.

Something else entirely began to plaque him instead; something even worse.

Voices.

Voices of all his friends and family. They were all either screaming from an unknown source of pain, talking to him reasonably for him to stop in a quivering tone, or whispering pleas for mercy from whatever he was doing to them. They rang out all around him in every direction imaginable and, no matter how hard he tried, they just wouldn't leave him alone, exactly like with his hollow's laughter. They started to become separated and he was able to distinguish each one from each other now, recognizing them individually. Each of the ones he knew was there from Keigo and Mizurio to his father and Yuzu. It wasn't the voices specifically that made him want to oh so desperately get away, but more of _what_ they were saying that got to him even more.

"_Kurosaki, what are you doing? ! Stop this! You don't want to do this! Think! Come back to use!"_ that one was Ishida, still trying to talk some sense into him.

"_No! Kurosaki-kun, stop! You're killing her!"_ Orihime, desperation drenching her tone.

"_Kill him! He has to be stopped as soon as possible!"_ Toushiro, giving orders to people.

"_It hurts… Ichi-nii… stop… she's bleeding so much…" _Karin. That one almost sent him over the edge.

"_Please Ichigo! Come back… I need you… to…"_ Rukia, her voice and thought not being completed due to an unknown reason, most likely too much pain.

All of these voices rang louder than anything else in his ears. He couldn't take it anymore, not hearing all those close to him in so much pain.

A pattern began to repeat itself in the way the voices talked, although never staying the same, torturing things.

A scream for help.

Talking reasonably to stop.

Whispering for mercy.

A dying plea for it to end.

Then repeated again with someone else. It wouldn't end, and the suffering youth vainly pressed his hands harder against his ears. His head was pushing up against his drawn in knees and his entire body wouldn't stop shaking in fear. Was it really himself causing all of his friends and family so much pain? No. he would never do anything like that. Ever. But then why were they _screaming_ at him to stop?

It was al becoming too much for him and he was beginning to feel his grip, weak as it may be, loosen on the only sanity he had left. He would break any minute if this went on any longer. He almost welcomed the thought because he wouldn't have to hear those pained voices any longer, or at least not be able to comprehend them. Almost.

Clenching his teeth together so hard that they creaked from the strain, he brought his body in even closer together, still trying to get away. With a sudden burst of energy, he snapped his head back up and yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Stop it! Please, just stop it! I don't want to hear them anymore!" he screamed to the ceiling.

Surprisingly, the voices stopped, leaving the room in an eerie silence.

He couldn't believe his ears. They actually stopped. But something still didn't feel right around him. Looking around the room to analyze every square inch of the place, he desperately tried to figure out what was wrong. His eyes were wide, terror and fear filling them to the brim. The last thing he wanted for the voice to start back up again or worse, for his hollow to show up unexpectedly.

Minutes that felt like days past by, bringing nothing else with them but silence. The sound of shallow, shaky breathing filled some of this void, although not enough. Small beads of perspiration appeared on the teen's brown that he didn't take notice of to wipe away. These came from the built up anticipation of something that he just somehow _knew_ was going to happen. His instincts still hadn't failed him in that field.

He jumped when the sound of a loud static noise filled the room. He desperately looked for the source, but found nothing. Until, his eyes found a spot on the wall adjacent to the windows that looked odd and different. A rectangular section of the center of the wall simmered and was slightly distorted. It resembled water when touched; agitated and shimmering. The distortion grew where it began to hurt the young man's eyes.

Closing them briefly to stop the soreness that was developing from starring at the odd section of wall for too long, he took the risk to rest them. When he opened them back up, after only a couple seconds, he laid his gaze upon the stop that was there beforehand. What was there in the place of the distortion was now a pure black, glossy door. Even the handle and hinges were the same color, nearly blending into the wood itself with barely an outline defining them as a different piece of the door.

Suspicious of the randomly placed exit, the chocolate-eyed teen eyed it with caution. It was a way out of here. A way of escape from this prison of a room. But, what were the consequences of going through the door, if any? He just couldn't come to terms with the miraculous way out just yet, although, it was an offer of which he could not refuse.

Slowly getting up from his small corner in which he presided temporarily, he made his way over to the door while occasionally using the white wall beside him for support since he still had pain lingering on him. He reached the exit and just stood in front of it, contemplating on if he should really open it or not. Eventually, his desire to escape his confinement over powered his decisions as he carefully reached for the black, shinning handle. His fingers brushed over the cold metal and he hesitated once more, but quickly passed that and firmly gripped the handle before turning it. Pulling inwards, the door opened.

With even more cautious but eager steps, he made his way out of the small room and though the door. What lay beyond that, he would soon find out.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: Well, did you guys like that little chapter of Ichigo? I thought that it would be nice to see what's been going on with him the entire time that Hichigo's been in control. If any parts confused you during this chapter, then just tell me about it and I'll be sure to ether fix the problem or clarify things up for you there. The next chapter will again be what Ichigo's doing, but we'll get back to Hichigo and his lovely time with Rukia here shortly after that.**

**Thanks to all those who read this chapter and I hope that you enjoyed it! Please take the couple minutes (if that) of time to tell me about what you thought about it in a review. They make my day and help me know what your opinions are on it. See you all next time!~ *throws candy on the ground***


	21. Nightmares Within A Nightmare

**A/N: This is the longest chapter that I have EVER written! It took me freakin' forever to write out too**, and is nearly three times longer than my other ones**! But, it's going to be worth it in the end… I hope.**

**Okay, so I need to brag for a little bit. I'm sure that you are all aware of those contests or promotions that companies and stores do that offer amazing things like free computers or tvs, yes? And, I'm sure that you all know how, no matter how many times you enter one of those things, you never win? Well, I didn't win one either! XD But! I got something along the lines of that just last week that is pretty close to that same sort of experience. **

**So my aunt and uncle were in town last week staying at our house and it was time for them to pack up their stuff to catch their flight the next morning. As they were, my uncle was sitting at the table in our living room messing on his little HP netbook while I ate some microwave dinner (I'm very lazy). Out of the blue, he asked me how my own computer was working, and I've ranted to you guys about how crappy my own is and how it is probably going to spontaneously combust any day now. I told him and he nodded silently before getting back to work on his netbook. About five minutes later, he looked at me again and handed me the computer and said it was MINE! At first, I thought he was just joking around, but he had already registered the BRAND NEW, $400 computer under my name! I took it without a second though, not before hugging the life out of him, and ran up to my room squealing like a little school girl about it. **

**So yeah, that was my amazing near-contest winning experience this week, and I'm sorry if I just wasted a couple minutes of your life talking about that, but oh well! I hope you enjoy my super long chapter and I'm sorry if it gets a little confusing at times.**

**DiScLaImEr: I dOn'T oWn BlEaCh!.!.!**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

His feet passed though the frame of the door that led him from the room which held him in confinement. The rest of his black garbed body soon followed, eager to see where it was that the door led to, hopefully a way to the outside where he was familiar with. Wherever it was, he would soon find out.

With unsteady steps that were caused from bodily pain, the young man slowly and with extreme caution made his way into a dimly lit hallway that stretched both to his left and right as far as he could see. The coloring of the hallway was identical to the room he just came from with doors placed at perfectly even intervals along both sides. These doors were exact replicas of the one he just came from, but they had small changes to them that his own did not possess. Some of them had odd markings like a blue outline around the door or a red "X" going across it. More abnormalities included signs with unintelligible forms of writing and other objects hanging off the handle and hinges. Other than those small details which not all the doors did possessed, they were the same glossy black as the one he stood in front of.

Not knowing where to go from there, the young man decided to go left down the hall to see where it led. He walked that way, occasionally needing to rest briefly on the side of the walls for a couple minutes, but then proceeded on his trek quickly after. No matter how far or how long he walked on it just seemed like the hallway never ended. There was no end in sight for that matter and the same types of doors just kept passing him by.

Some of these doors he passed really piqued his interest by how they looked. He was tempted more than once to take a quick peek inside some of them, just to see what lay behind them. A couple in particular included one with a red ribbon tied in a gentle knot around the handle, one with a simple, small white heart that had drips coming down from the bottom of its apex painted delicately in the top right corner of a door, and another which possessed splatters of dark, purple paint along the bottom of it that looked to be haphazardly spew there **[1].**

All of these doors made him want to enter them, but each time he denied himself the urge because he didn't want to risk the possibilities of not being able to get back out from those rooms when he went in. Therefore, he pressed on, determined to find a way out of this hall.

Another door passed him by, then another one soon after that. He really was beginning to think that this hallway didn't have an end. How was it even possible for this passage to be so long without making some sort of direction change or just cut off? It didn't make much sense when he thought about it. But then again, when did anything in his inner world make a bit of sense? The thought made him chuckle a bit.

He had been walking now for quite some time with still no results. It was probably around a good thirty minutes that he had been on that path. It was really getting tiresome and rather boring to say the least.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he saw something up ahead different than what he had been witness to for the past half hour.

An end.

Once realizing this fact, he rushed up to meet it with earnest. Sure enough, once he came up to it, there was the end of the hallway with a near plain door standing strong, no others near it for about one hundred feet. It was alone at the end. No other way to go but through it.

This form of procession seemed to almost call out to the young, weary orangette; for him to go through its depths to what lay inside. He would have immediately gone through had it not been for two factors.

One. He didn't _have_ to go through the door. He could just turn around and see where the other direction would lead instead.

Two. There was a faint, thin marking on the door that stood out. That was a dark, murky grey colored "X" not unlike the others he had seen on previous doors, stuck directly in the middle of its surface, almost like it was engraved there. It also appeared to have barely visible burn marks covering it from top to bottom being more noticeable when near the marking.

Both of these two facts about the situation contributed to his hesitation in opening the door, although those also had faults in the reasoning behind them. For instance, he didn't know if going back the way he came would yield any different results, plus he didn't really have the energy for a feat like that. Also, those markings could be just that, markings. Who was to say that they weren't some odd form of decoration holding no specific meaning?

It could be really interesting beyond the door, or better yet, a way out that he had been looking for.

Or, it could be something else entirely catastrophic that turned the situation in a complete one-eighty.

Well, he wouldn't know which until he actually _opened_ the door and not just think about it. Steeling his resolve and mind, he concluded on his decision and yanked open the door with surprising force considering his state. Once the door was fully opened, he stared into what lay beyond it.

Past the frame was an empty, vast void-like area that had nothing inside of it except for the faint traces of random colors swirling around in its depths. As soon as he laid eyes in the emptiness, a sharp shudder racked through his body. It was almost identical to the black area and substance that had surrounded him when he first woke up; the horrible, consuming place where he couldn't even try to escape from. There was no way he would ever want to go into a place like that, no matter the differences in it.

He started to quickly back pedal away from the empty abyss residing in the doorway. He wanted to get away - as far as he could - from that place as fast as he was able to. Just about to turn around and take off back towards the way he came, something else unexpected happened.

The black, color tinted substance shot out past the door frame faster than once could blink and latched onto the retreating man's arms and legs. All the captured teen managed to do once he realized what was going on was utter a small scream. Even that was cut off soon because he was abruptly yanked into the main body of the void before he could do anything about it.

The blackness engulfed him completely and he was once again lost in its depths.

His eyes closed, body went limp, and his mind shut down forcefully…

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

He woke up with a start, upper body flailing upwards as all of his senses came rushing back to him. He quickly took in his surroundings and current position, not quite sure of what was going on.

He found himself sitting sprawled out on the ground in his Shinigami attire, same as always. None of that really bothered him, more of _where_ he was that did.

Everything around him was trees, like a forest, and they looked very wet and darkened, almost as if they were being shadowed. Looking up, the source was found as small drops of water fell from a covered sky. It was raining, yet he could not even feel any of the drops hit his skin. Either he was just too numb to feel them, which could be very likely, or something else wasn't right here.

Deciding to investigate the area more, he stood up and dusted his clothes off half-heartedly. Come to think of it, he was feeling a lot better than before. He could actually move without nearly as much pain as opposed to previously and he had a considerable amount of energy compared, too. That was a definite upside to his situation. Now he just had to figure out where he was and everything would be just peachy.

Scoffing slightly at the thought, the orange headed teen started to walk off in a random direction. Like anything would be fine as things were right now. There was still much that needed to be answered and he had no clue how he was going to get those answers. It was really quite frustrating.

A clearing was quickly coming into view in front of him and he ran up to meet it. He soon found himself surrounded by graves, head stones dotting the ground everywhere. The rain was even stronger here, no trees stalling the drops' downfall. Why was he in a graveyard? Come to think of it, this placed looked familiar to him. The arrangements of all the stones jogged something in his memory, but what he wasn't extremely sure of.

A small and shaky voice crying could be heard off in the distance. It sounded like it belonged to a young girl. His instincts to protect and help kicked in and he rushed to find the source. Being an older brother and all really made him detest hearing any one, especially young girls like his sisters, in trouble.

He soon found the small girl making the noise, finding others to be with her. The one crying was hunched over a wet, gray headstone, bawling. She had light brown hair and a subtle yellow dress on. There was also a girl with black hair, her head bowed low to cover her eyes, wearing a regular t-shirt, baseball cap, and sporting shorts. By both of their sides was an older man with a scruffy chin and a cheesy flowered shirt on. It didn't take the young man long to figure out who these people were.

His family.

They were all here together, visiting their mother's grave. But that didn't make sense. They never, at least according to his knowledge, came to her resting place without him or not on the anniversary of her death. So why now all of the sudden?

"_Mom... I miss you so much,"_ Yuzu cried to the cement. Her voice sounded so distant even though her brother was practically standing only ten feet away from her. He felt something inside his chest ache at his sister's words.

"_If only Ichigo had managed to save you in time, then you'd still be here with us," _that was Karin this time, her tone hateful and resentful. Her fists where clenched tightly at her sides. Said accused stood there, horrified. Karin had _never_ talked like that or blamed him for anything that happened, even if he himself did. But to hear it out of his own sister's mouth was something else entirely.

She was right after all.

It was all his fault that their wonderful, loving, innocent mother had been killed.

All his fault.

For everything.

"_Why? Why! Why did Ichi-nii not save her? !" _Yuzu bawled, sounding both hysterical and furious. That was a new thing to hear from his gentle little sister. He had not heard her once sounding so bitter and hateful towards anyone.

"_Yes,"_ his father, Isshin, said, bringing his head up to look directly at the shaking chocolate eyed figure that stood near them, _"Why didn't' you save her?"_

Now all three of them were staring intently at him, hateful fire burning in their eyes. Those gazes froze him to the spot.

"N-no, no… I did try. I really did… I-I just… couldn't…" he stammered out in his weak defense. His words fell on deaf ears though, even his own because he didn't even believe what he was spitting out.

His own family was turning against him, accusing his actions and his very being, and he could do nothing but agree with everything they said.

He began to take uneven steps backwards in an attempt to escape the criticism he was subjected to. After only four of these, he was stopped as his back hit something large, halting him in his escape path. He looked up and stared right in the face of none other than his mother's killer.

Grand Fisher.

Jumping away as quickly as his legs could manage, he put some space in between him and the hollow before him. His hand instinctively reached up to grab his zanpakuto's hilt to defend himself, but found it grabbing at nothing but air. Zangetsu was gone.

Panic began to overtake his features at this realization. He was defenseless; completely vulnerable to basically any form of attack sent his way. His battle instincts were screaming at him to find some sort of weapon to fight back with, but there was nothing within sight or range besides the headstones that dusted the area. He would need to fall back before engaging in a fight, but he was either going to have to do it slowly to not attract as much attention or as quick as possible to not give his enemy a chance to figure out what was going on.

He wanted to oh so desperately go with his second thought, but it would be more tactical and logical to go with his first option.

To bad he never got the opportunity to attempt either one.

A sudden and violent push came from behind, causing him to stumble forward clumsily. The shove was by Yuzu who was wearing a sadistic but blank expression on her face. He wasn't able to question why she had done that before a hand snatched him up from the ground, crushing the breath out of him.

Gasping for air, he desperately tried to get out of his hold to no avail. He still wasn't strong enough to wrestle out of the grip so he was vulnerable to anything his capturer willed.

"_I've got you now, boy"_ it spit out next to his face. Its breath coaxed over his head and smelt rancid, _"You can finally join your dear mother in death!"_

Squeezing him tightly one last time, Grand Fisher opened up his maw wide, teeth gleaming with saliva, and shoved the withering, defenseless youth in.

The hollow chomped down.

And is world once again was forced into the black void of darkness.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

He was falling. Fast.

A wonderful thing to awaken to; directly in the midst of a failed attempt at flight. The wind shrieked in his ears as he fell towards the gray, concrete covered ground below. He felt like he was screaming, but couldn't tell for sure because no other sound besides the wind reached his ears. All his limbs were flailing uselessly in the air to try to get a grip or just balance on nothingness.

The ground was coming up faster now and he would hit it any moment. In the last few seconds before he impacted, everything around him slowed down just enough to make the 'landing' to the point where it wasn't lethal, but still hurt like being body slammed by a sumo wrestler.

Groaning with obvious discomfort and pain, he raised himself up on his hands and knees, giving his head a good shake to will the foggy, dizzy feeling to go away. That seemed to work to his benefit at least as his vision and head cleared up soon after.

It appeared that his body was going to protest his efforts to make it any farther than a simple kneeling position. It was almost like a giant, oppressive weight came upon his body that forced him to stay down whenever he tried to get up any farther that his current position.

His attention was caught by steadily approaching footsteps coming off from the side. A young woman, no older than twenty, with a simple summer dress and hat on came into view. The chain on her chest rattled slightly as she walked, contrasting with the rest of her attire because of its slightly glinting metal. She looked around in slight confusion at her tattered surroundings, one hand perched on her head to prevent her hat from escaping off into the wind.

Something seemed very odd about this lone soul. That was how everything about the wondering woman appeared… hazy. It was like looking at a television screen that was blurred by static, making the picture unclear and out of focus. This was what the lost plus looked like to the stilled teen, which in turn confused him. Shouldn't people look, well, clear and not like that?

"Wh-what…" he was having trouble getting his words out from his overused throat, "Are you-"

He was cut off suddenly from his question when a monstrous roar broke through the air. Both soul and teen snapped their heads around to the source of the outburst and barely managed to lay eyes upon the white figure before it disappeared from sight. It came back into existence merely feet away from the shocked woman and tackled her to the ground in a blur with extreme force.

Screams of immense pain ensued immediately after.

Every fiber of his being wanted to rush over to the tortured plus' side, but he was prevented every time by the force pushing him back down. No matter how much strength he used against it, he just could not move. Forced to watch the torment the person before him was subjected to endure.

As he angrily watched, he noticed something. The monster – hollow by the looks of the gaping hole in the center of its chest – looked like _himself_. Same build, same mask, same obnoxiously colored orange hair. This _thing_ attacking an innocent person was _him_. This was what his hollow looked like when in complete control over his body. No wonder Orihime and Uryu had seemed so cautious and jumpy when near him in Hueco Mundo. They had laid witness to him in this state. Heck, even he was scared by just looking at what his hollow had turned his body into.

Another ear piercing scream split the air and his already depleting efforts to aid were halted. After the second the scream was released, a horrible tearing and splintering sound – soon evolving into a crackling break – tore through the air. Not even a moment later did a splattering smack come to his ears and bright red appear in his sight. Looking down slowly, he saw the source.

The woman's arm, still hazy, lay before him, brutally torn off and covered in blood. Claw and teeth marks were scattered across the skin too.

Weak whimpering came from the permanently wounded soul. She was still lying on the soaked ground with not even a stump left of where her arm used to be. Her whole body was shaking in pain, face contorted to assist in expressing it to the world.

His hollow was just kneeling over her head, his own face inches away from hers. He let a blue colored tongue slide across her abused cheek, whipping off a small amount of the blood there. She cringed in fear.

The young bystander gained a look of disgust at these actions. Even his experiences on the front line of battle could not have been worse than this. After all, it was still _him _doing this in the end.

"_Please stop…" _the dying woman pleaded, _"Stop this torture,_ Ichigo."

He froze to the spot at the mention of his name from this stranger's lips. How… How did she even know his name?

"_Just kill me already,_ Ichigo."

The beast above her chuckled darkly at the request, bringing his head up. He gave a quick look over to the teen, freezing his blood with his icy eyes, before turning his attention back to his victim.

"_**With pleasure."**_

His razor sharp teeth dug into the soft flesh of her neck, ripping it all to shreds. The plus didn't even have the chance - or ability - to scream. All that came from her was a weak gurgle and then… nothing.

He could only stare. Stare at the mangled body that lay in front of him, only vaguely even resembling what used to be a living body.

The clattering of metal behind him gathered his attention away from the bloodied scene. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a mass of gray, rusted chains moving amongst themselves, similar to the movement of snakes. Theses strands individually shot out towards him and grabbed a hold of him with unbreakable strength. They then began to quickly drag him towards the nearest wall, morphing into a swirling black vortex.

His scrambling did no good as he was thrown into the void.

The last thing he heard, besides his own useless pleas, was dark, purely evil laughter.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The world spun around him as his vision came back to him. When he was able to at least focus his sight on his surroundings, he found himself quite confused at where he was this time. It looked extremely familiar, but gave off an eerie feeling.

Dimly lit walls surrounded him on all four sides, sealing him in. they weren't nearly as plain as the first room he woke up in and there were what looked like picture frames and other sorts of decorations around the room. He could even see the outline of a twin sized bed in one of the corners and dresser next close to it.

Again, he felt like he knew where he was. The layout of the furniture and everything else rang a bell in his head that his place was somewhere in his memories. Then it clicked, just like a light bulb going off in his head.

This was one of the rooms in his house, the spare one that his family used for when they had guests or when a patient had to use it do to the unavailability of space downstairs in the clinic. He recalled that the frames along the walls, if he was remembering correctly, held pictures of calming scenes such as a lake side or a sunrise. The dresser was empty except for the spare set of sheets and the bed was covered in a plain white comforter that had been untouched for some time now. It was simple, but well put together, just like the clinic rooms were.

Something came into his thoughts at that moment. If he was in one of the rooms of his house, then maybe, just maybe, he was finally free of those horrible scenes that he was not able to escape from conjured up by his hollow. Or, on a graver note, it could be just another one of those nightmares, twisted and deranged from memories he could now hardly recall. What little hope he had before was shaken by this theory.

Instead of just waiting where he was on the floor to find out his answers, the conflicted orangette decided that he would get up and find out for himself if this was all real or not. But there was one problem with that.

He was heavily chained to the floor by the very same metal links that pulled him into the vortex, in turn bringing him to this place. No matter how hard he tried to pull against their force, he could not make any headway against it. A chain strand covered basically every part of his body: arms, legs, torso, waist, ankles, wrists. Even his neck was encased in a metal collar with chains coming off of it and embedding into the ground, preventing him from moving his head to a certain degree.

Well, that eliminated all ideas of this being reality. He was still stuck in this hellish world with no control about how things would play out.

A series of sounds came to his ears, originating from below the floor he was encroached to. First was a knocking on wood, the door being opened, silence for a short while before a rapid escalade of footsteps, a pot colliding with the hard floor, and a easily identifiable laughter that could only belong to his hollow.

The footfalls were coming up the stairs rapidly now, two pairs of them. One of them sounded as if they stumbled in their path, tripping on the stairs they were so hastily trying to ascend. They quickly recovered and now seemed to be in the hallway right outside of where he was chained.

"_Hurry Yuzu!"_ Karin yelled desperately to her twin, _"In here!"_

The twin girls came bursting into the room he was in, bringing in the light from the hallway which his location lacked. Unlike the last place where he was, their images and figures were crystal clear; no signs of the static and haze that the woman – dead plus – had shown before she was brutally murdered, and even after that. His dear sisters looked just as they did in real life, except for the fact of how they looked scared to death with pale faces and widened eyes.

After they both made their way into the room, they slammed the door shut and hid themselves in the space between the dresser and bed, making their bodies as small as possible while shaking uncontrollably.

"Karin! Yuzu!" the protective brother yelled, pulling against his restraints with all his might, "Run! Don't stay here! Both of you need to get to safety now! Please, just get away! Wait… Can't you hear me?"

As it turned out, they had not heard a word he just said, or any others for that matter. In their eyes, they were the only living souls in the room and the area that he was chained to was completely empty. They also could not hear anything their sibling said. It was like he quite literally didn't even exist.

"_Shh… Yuzu, we'll be okay. We'll be okay,"_ Karin comforted quietly, rocking back and forth slightly.

"_B-but… But that's Ichigo! Oh, please say that it's not. It just can't be,"_ Yuzu whispered back almost too softly to hear.

"_No, that can't be our Ichigo. Don't worry, he'll come any second now and beat up that thing for us and we'll all be safe. He _has_ to come. He just _has_ to,"_ the black haired twin reassured to her sibling and to herself as well.

He was at a lost for what to do. Here were his sisters, both more terrified then he had ever seen them before, and they were still waiting for him to come rescue them from the monster coming up behind them that was really himself. How was he supposed to protect them when it was him causing all of this?

The knob of the door began to turn ever so slowly, a small creaking basically screaming through the deathly silent room. Without making hardly any sound at all, the hollow that looked so much like their older brother stepped through the opening he created. His white face and demonic eyes were exposed to all because of the mask pulled over to the side of his head, horns pointing off to the right.

"_**Come on out 'n play with me fer a bit. Isn't that what siblings are supposed ta do?"**_ the hollow chuckled darkly. He grinned sadistically at the twins 'hiding spot' and began to make his way slowly over to them, an action similar to that of a lion stalking its prey. The demon moved with feline grace and stopped in front of the two fear stricken girls.

"_**What's wrong?"**_ he asked sarcastically. Moving almost too fast to see, the hollow grabbed Yuzu by the hair and yanked her up to his eye level. Staring straight into her face, he continued,_** "Don't ya want ta spend some quality time with yer nii-san?"**_

It busted out in a full blown laughter, his glowing golden eyes brimmed with hysteria.

Through all of this, Karin was desperately trying to get this monster to release the grip he had on her sister. Her efforts did not go unnoticed as the hollow abruptly back handed her, sending the surprised girl flying into a nearby wall. Her breath was instantly knocked out of her and she lay there on the floor trying to regain it.

"_**Ya'll get yer turn here soon enough, so just wait there until then,"**_ the hollow mockingly declared, turning back to the one in his hands.

Smirking devilishly, he slammed Yuzu to the floor head first and relished in the screech of pain she let out from it. Brandishing a clawed hand up in the air, he held it suspended just long enough for _everyone_ in the room to see what he was about to do. Then he struck.

Obsidian claws sharper than a sword's edge tore through flesh with ease. A line of liquid red appeared on little Yuzu's abdomen at an angle, traveling from below the right side of her rib cage and going down to her left hip. The wound wasn't nearly as deep as it could have been with all things considered, but Yuzu's screams said otherwise. She had never felt such intense pain as this in her life and it was horrible.

Her screams were not the only ones to fill the air as both of her siblings were also desperately yelling out her name. A certain orange head was getting furious and was experiencing a mix of fear and concern that had had not felt for a long time.

Karin on the other hand, who had been able to recover from her sudden hit, was running – sprinting – over to where her twin lay in a growing puddle of her own blood. As soon as she came within a foot of her now quieted body, she found herself looking up to the ceiling before having her back slammed against the floor boards with a definite crack coming from her upper back. She felt a blinding pain coming from her scapula's and could vaguely register the feeling of cracked or broken bones coming from the location where she hit.

Giving a loud, auditable gasp of pain, she snapped her eyes shut to try and get through the horrible feeling. Even with her eyes closed, spots still danced in front of her and almost made her dizzy from their constant appearance and movement.

A faint whimpering noise coming off to her left reached her ears and brought her back to the current situation. Karin blearily opened her eyes and brought her limp head rolling over to gaze over at the scrunched up face of her brown-hair sister. Bringing her gaze down lower on her body, she saw the wound marring the abdominal area near her stomach and other vital organs.

With a shaky hand, Karin vainly attempted to reach out to comfort her beloved, timid twin in any way she could. Her strength gave out on her right before the shivering appendage had been able to make any sort of contact and ended up falling in the shimmering puddle spreading across the floor, soaking through it.

"_It hurts. Ichi-nii… stop… She's bleeding so much…" _Karin said with much effort.

A shadow loomed over her in that instance and she moved her eyes to stare blindly at the figure resembling her brother in utter fear. She saw how his hand was priming itself for an attack once more, already bloodied claws gleaming from the light entering from the hallway.

She gravely realized that the hollow was going to give her the same fate her sister had befallen on herself.

Her predication was right on the dot when she felt her middle explode in burning fire.

The wound inflicted on her was nearly completely identical to her twin's and she soon too fell silent next to her in the blood rushing from both of their bodies. Her conscious faded due to the shear amount of pain and blood loss a few seconds after.

He watched it all; saw all of the torture done to his _own sisters_. The same sisters that he swore to himself that he would not let any kind of harm come to. But there they were. Lying on the ground bleeding their life's out onto the red stained floor. And, the worst part of it all was that _he, HE_ was doing all of it. The only thing he could do was to continue screaming his lungs out in desperation, knowing how fruitless his actions were.

He was barely able to register the fact that his hollow was now walking over to him, a smug look radiating off of him. Still he did not stop his yelling, and he could see that the being now in front of him was beginning to grow annoyed at this.

The hollow brought his right arm, now wielding the familiar sleek, black zanpakuto that had seemingly manifested out of nowhere, and crudely hit the chained teenager upside his temple with the hilt end of the sword.

The orange-head Shinigami effectively slummed to the ground after the hit and felt the darkness slowly begin to close itself around him again.

"_**So noisy."**_

Before he descended into its clutches, he saw his hollow casually walk out of the room, closing the door behind d him which he left a bloodied hand print on and retreated back to the hallway. He left the broken family in the room, completely aware of what would happen next.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

This time when he woke up, it was raining. He could actually _feel_ the drops unlike the first 'dream' he woke up to. Another thing that was also different from the first was how his head hurt tremendously on the side and throbbed painfully in synchronization with his heart. On another note, he at least wasn't' chained to the ground any more, at least as far as he could tell from where he was lying.

Clenching his fists experimentally, he found his fingers gripping around slick grass that slide in between his fingers with ease. When he finally got around to opening his sore eyes, he found himself propped up against the side of a hill. Using his new hold on the plant in his hands, the berry-head pulled himself up to sit cross legged and looked around at the rest of the scenery surrounding him.

It was indeed raining, and it was also well past the afternoon, beginning into the dark hours of nighttime. A bridge extended over to his right that was empty of any travelers or passerbys. Underneath it was a raging river, flowing much faster than it should have normally due to the immense amount of rainfall.

The young Shinigami felt himself instantly freeze over as he looked around. This scenery, much like that last ones he was present in, was _very_ familiar, but this one was_ much_ more so. After all, how could he ever forget the event and placement of the day that had scarred him forever?

With a horrible sense of foreboding and dread, the fearful teen slowly looked over to his left and found the exact scene beginning to take place that had been burned into his memories a long time ago.

The younger version of himself, dressed in a yellow raincoat, bolted from his mother's side and went rushing towards the hazardous river to try and rescue what looked like a small girl about to fall into its current. His protective, loving mother was right on his heels, not being able to know what it was her son was suddenly running off after.

No.

No.

_No!_

He could not lay witness to this again, not without at least trying to prevent it in some way or form now that he knew what would happen. He didn't think that his mind would be able to handle the strain of rewatcdhing that tragedy relapse once more.

Before his mind could even come to terms on what to do, his body was already ahead of him, sprinting towards the two people off in front of him. His mouth began to scream without him even needing to think about what to say.

"No, wait! Stop! Don't!" he yelled, reaching out with his hand to try and stall their progression. He was abruptly halted in his path as a clear, glass-like structure appeared in between him and his past memories.

This couldn't be happening. He couldn't be so close only to be stopped by something like this. Pounding on it didn't seem to have any effect and he was forced to sidelines, unable to assist in anything or anyway. He could just watch as it all played out before him, just like the last time.

His younger self was now just about to reach out and grab the girl's hand to stop her from falling. But this time, as a bystander, he could see the faint image of Grand Fisher just a little ways farther off in the river, waiting for his prey to come close enough to strike.

The boy's hand didn't touch the girl's. It went straight through instead. Grand Fisher pounced at that moment of vulnerability, opening his jaws wide in preparation for his next meal.

The very second before he closed his mouth down on his victim, the boy's mother pushed him down to the ground from behind. She may not have had reiatsu to allow her the ability to see the monsters and spirits that her son and husband had been able to, but her maternal instinct was blaring loudly in her head to _protect._ Protect her son from a force she was unable to perceive. And so, she did just that.

Teeth pierced her body, mainly down her back the hardest, and punctured lungs, organs, and her heart.

She died instantly.

Only to be brought back into a completely different world as her soul separated with her mutilated body.

He watched with clouded eyes as the next scene played out before him, one that he had not been able to see before.

As his now unconscious self lay on the wetted grass with the body of the one who saved him on top of him, his mother, a chain attached to her chest, looked down protectively at her son before gazing directly into the eyes of her killer. That was the last thing she was able to perceive before she, for the second time that day, descended into the clutches of death.

The hollow – the horrible, monstrous being that was Grand Fisher – then reseeded back to the river, his fill taken.

The limp orange-head on the ground stirred into the conscious world, and the first thing he saw was his mother's unresponsive, red covered body lying on top of him.

"_M-mom?"_

He couldn't listen any more to the wails the young version of himself gave off, desperately pleading for his cold mother to awaken so that they could both go home and everything would be alright. It was already too much for his weakened heart to take.

The equally shaken Shinigami's knees gave out from under him and he landed on them with a thud. Hot tears streaked down his cheeks that just would not stop, although it wasn't like he was trying.

"Mom… No, mom…" he cried, _cried_ for her, wishing her back with all his worth.

He was still hazily looked at the two people on the hill with him, unable to go over to them still because of the glass-like structure blocking his way. Why was it that, when he was so close - so very, _very _close – he was still not able to do anything no matter how he so desperately wished to?

A pure white copy of someone that looked nearly identical to the slumped, defeated warrior blurred into existence. His form came into focus next to the pair on the other side of the barrier, hands tipped with black nails folded behind is back as he circled the two in curiosity. Hungry eyes drifted over to the bloodied corpse and rested there briefly before traveling over to the one trapped.

The identical gave a low humming sound from deep within his throat, as if he found the whole situation quite amusing. In a very slow, steady pace, the pale being made his way over to the prone, older youth. His body seemed to melt through the glass barrier almost like it wasn't even there to being with and he stood idly by the man's shaking form.

The orange-headed youth didn't even seem to notice the other's presence, or if he did, no acknowledgement was given. He just kept his leaking eyes upon the dead body in front of him, never moving once.

"**You could've saved her, y' know."**

His breath hitched, caught in his throat. Even though he wasn't paying his replica any mind, his words still somehow managed to get through to him, corrupting his thoughts and forcing him to accept his lies.

"**It's all yer fault that yer dear, sweet mom died,"** his hollow purred next to his ears, cold breath making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Still, he did _nothing_ to make him stop speaking, taking in every word.

"**If you would've been the one that Grand Fisher had taken instead, then she would've still been alive and **_**happy.**_** But no. Now she's lying in a pool of her own cold blood while her soul remains inside the thing that killed and ate her. Never to cross over to the other side."**

Why must this _monster_ keep telling him what he already knew? He had buried the truth, feeding himself lies all these years, only for the person that he feared the most to stab him in the heart with his crimes.

"**An',"** he continued, taking on a sharp edge in his voice, **"It's **_**all **_**because of**_** you!"**_

That was it. That small, strong statement was too much. All of the events here had been slowly wearing on him, and that was the final straw, the feather on the camel's back.

_It broke him._

His mind could simply not handle any more and all his will to go on just up and abandoned him, packed up its things and left without saying goodbye. The fire had always burned deep in his eyes no matter what kind of situation he was faced with, faded into nothing. His wet orbs lost all light and his body hunched over in defeat.

Hovering over the basically lifeless body in front of him, the hollow took great pride in his work. It took quite some effort on his part for him to get his former 'host' to this state. He had been harder to break then first anticipated. But now he could take pride in his achievement kneeling before him.

Stepping back a couple feet, the white doppelgänger observed as a square section of the hill where his victim laid quickly vanished from underneath him. His body fell through the opening with nothing beneath him and gravity soon took over from there. He shot straight down head-first, not making any attempts to move to stop his descent.

His hollow leaned over the edge of the opening and gave a humorous wave before it sealed shut, leaving the broken youth falling in total darkness.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

He still fell, nothing surrounding him except for the crushing blackness that followed him everywhere he was in this world. But he didn't care this time; didn't care that he could be falling to his death or falling forever this time around. Nothing mattered to him anymore, so what was the point?

He was the cause of so many people's troubles, especially is family's. He had and still _was_ a burden on them too. What was the point in fighting to come back to them if he was only going to be in the way, creating more problems and stress just because of his presence?

None.

None what so ever.

It would really be beneficiary to all if he just stayed here, out of everyone's hair and not bothering them anymore.

He didn't care when the black void morphed into a vertically positioned sky pouring down blankets of rain from dark gray clouds. Nor did he care when he spotted a skyscraper speeding up under his head.

The impact he dealt to the building's surface left a large crater created by his body. It was painful, yes, but his mind could not process that as it began to forcefully shut itself down from the immense turmoil that it was in.

Before he lost himself again, the only thought pounding around through his tortured mind was that of wishing that it would all just simply end right the and there, that way he would not have to go thought anymore of the treatment he had impeded upon himself and others.

'_I'm sorry mom. Please, just let the pain end.'_

His eyes closed and he was swept away into the currents of his own thoughts and dreams that his own mind conjured up on its own, making them all the more real and terrifying.

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**[1]: These details really aren't all that important, but they do have hidden meanings to them that may or may not be mentioned in later chapters. I'm still figuring out whether I should or not. Please try and guess the meanings behind them if you like in a review! :3**

**A/N: Hoorah! Another chapter down, but sadly another one closer to the end. :'( So now that Ichigo's back in his inner world on the outside, although inconveniently unconscious again, we will be switching scenes back over to the wonderful, loving hollow that I just can't get enough of! I have some really interesting things planned so be warned that it is going to get ugly, VERY ugly from here on out. If any of you find any mistakes in this document, then please tell me and I'll fix it right away, whether it be grammatical or things don't make sense. It is a very large chapter and I can't find all my mistakes.**

**Thanks for reading and please review! *waves huge tub of ice cream* I love you all!**


	22. Help From The Obvious

**A/N: I am terribly sorry for such the long delay in the updating of this chapter. I'm not going to give some crappy excuse for you wonderful readers either, but I did have a lack of inspiration lately which is the main cause. I just couldn't figure out how I wanted to write it all out and got stuck for quite some time. You can thank my amazing friend Logan (who doesn't have an account on here yet) for helping me with that. Thanks bud! *huggles***

**Oh yeah! I'm also officially out of school and turned 17 now too! :D**

**I'm aware that I haven't been responding to your awesome reviews as of lately and my only excuse for that is that I was lazy really. Hehe… ^^" So, to make up for that, I'm going to respond to them right now here!**

**GGCharms: **I know, right! I was really trying my best to make it so that it touched people's hearts more. It took me forever to figure out what kind of scenes I should put in to make it hardest for Ichigo though, but it looks like it turned out pretty good in the end!

**MaeKat: **Thanks so much hun! *huggles* I know that it was pretty sad having to see Ichigo all broken and junk, but never fear! It'll all be better by the end… maybe that is. *evil laugh* And yes, the doors that he was seeing do represent the different memories that Ichigo experienced during his life. Some of the more important ones were marked with something that represented that memory too such as paint splatters or a dripping heart.

**Kit Kinya L.O.A.F member: **I'm sorry! I'll make it up to you by offering something not food related this time! How's that? I'm glad that I accomplished my goal of making it as depressingly sad as possible too! And… thank you so much for those awesome compliments! It really does mean a lot to me! OwO Sorry for not updating it in record time as well, but at least I got it out here now! Right?...

**Horo-Emptiness: **Yeah, things are kinda getting a bit weirder than they usually are, huh? Yep! The doors do represent different memories and if you want more info on them, then just look at the end of MaeKat's review response to know more. And, in this chapter we do get to see more of the beloved Hichigo's psychopathic rage. Woo!

**Virtue and Vice: **Oh, you have no idea hun. That crazy hollow is capable of basically anything and can get much, much worse if he wanted to. Hehehe. X) I'm also very glad that I accomplished making that chapter as horrific and scary as I tried to! :D

**IchigoMoonCutter: **I guess you could say that in a way 'cause in the anime/manga, Zangetsu did get "taken over" in a sense as well when the hollow had more power than he did. So yeah, let's go with that! :D Don't think like that! Of course there's still hope left for Ichigo! There always is! T^T Although, that is true how his mind is going to be pretty screwed up if he does come back. Probably for life in the end. X) Why am I happy about this? O.o

**Therasia: **Yeah, it was a pretty long chapter and it took me freakin' forever to just proofread it! I still probably missed a bunch of stuff too… Yeah, I agree that no one should have to suffer the way that Ichigo is forced to, but hey it's entertaining to both me and you readers so I ain't complainin'! XD Don't worry about not reviewing. I know that I can get a little behind too with all the bloody school work that they throw at me, so just get through that first 'cause that does take priority. Most of the time ;)

**Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's move on with this extremely delayed chapter, shall we? But first, the dreaded disclaimer! Woo…**

**Disclaimer: I don't now nor will I ever own Bleach.**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Her heart beat frantically like a rabbit hyped u on steroids underneath the pale white fingers resting threateningly on her sternum. She could hardly breathe in fear that, if she did, that simple movement would drive those lethal claws into her chest.

But why hadn't the hollow struck yet? They had been standing like this for what seemed like over two minutes now, just standing without making hardly any sound or motion. Was the beast waiting for something or someone?

Rukia dared a glance into the hollow's eyes and saw something that she was not expecting. The hollow's eyes hat used to be Ichigo's were glazed over and completely blank. They looked empty; void of anything. It was almost like he was not even there, but his consciousness was somewhere else. Maybe she could use this momentary detachment to her advantage. She did still have her zanpakuto after all.

Inching away from the hand, she backed up slowly until she was a foot away and then brought her weapon up to strike. The hollow still stood before her, frozen in the exact same position with his hand where it was and a blank gaze staring forward. Still, that was odd, but she was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Both hands now on the sword, Rukia thrusted it forward, directing it at the creature's head.

She hesitated for only a second, and it was that second that cost her everything.

During the duration of that time, the white demon twitched back into focus as his sense came flooding to him in a rush. In one fluid motion, he tipped his head to the side and grabbed a hold of the snow colored sword, pulling its owner forward.

Off balance and unable to steady herself on her feet, Rukia tumbled head-first into the hollow's bare chest. She tried to push away, but failed when she found herself flying backwards, crashing into an already broken building. Many protrusions, including cut pipes and splintering chunks of wood lacerated wounds on her body. The injuries that littered her form began to bleed immediately in endless streams.

Staggering onto shaky feet, she righted herself again, quickly spotting her unintentionally discarded zanpakuto in a nearby pile of rubble. Right as she took a hold of the white hilt, static and cracking bricks sounded off in the direction where she came through.

Sode no Shirayuki was up to guard at the moment's notice. The blade pointed towards the hollow that stood idly in the crumbling opening, his own black sword resting on his shoulders lazily.

"**Really? Did ya actually think that ya had **_**any**_** chance of beatin' me, even if I wasn't payin' attention? Just 'cause I was dealin' with King doesn't mean that I'm not gonna be able to defend myself,"** the hollow explained in his own mocking way, nonchalantly shrugging.

What he said confused Rukia. What was he talking about, and who was this 'King' he mentioned? Might as well ask to buy some time. It couldn't hurt after all.

"Wait," the hollow raised one eyebrow at this, a motion that could barely be seen due to the mask covering his face, "I-I'm a little confused. Who is this 'King' that you mentioned?"

He just laughed at first, a low chuckle.

"_**That's**_** what yer wonderin' about? Well, ya sure are a strange one, I'll give ya that."**

'_I'm the strange one? Look who's talking.'_ Rukia scoffed in her head, not daring to voice her thoughts out loud as she still wanted to keep the hollow distracted for as long as she could. Perhaps a plan could be conjured up or help arrive during that time. Or, she could just be prolonging her own demise.

"**King is that idiotic an' pathetic excuse fer a worthless Shinigami that ya'll know as **_**Ichigo,**_**"** he practically spat out the orange headed youth's name, **"He's the ruler of our world an' this body, always makin' all the decisions an' crap like that. But he ain't much of a King now that he's broken. An' besides, he's not gonna be able ta fight me in his current condition fer the throne, so it looks like **_**I'm**_** the King now!"**

"No…" Rukia whispered to the air quietly.

"**What was that, Princess?"** the hollow asked when he heard her.

"I said…" Rukia started, raising both her head and voice that was looking at the ground to meet the demonic eyes of the enemy, "No. you will never beat Ichigo. He _will_ defeat you and take his body back for himself! He's not the type of man who would just give up so easily, especially when his friends were in harm's way. No matter what obstacles stand in his way, he will overcome every last one. Nothing will be able to stop him in his goals whether it be rescuing a comrade in need or taking back his body. Not even scum like yourself will be able to stop him from achieving his goals. So just you wait. Wait and see what Ichigo is capable of and you'll know how his unbreakable determination will help him accomplish _anything_ he sets his mind to. Then maybe you will understand why there is absolutely no chance for you to be the 'King.' Only Ichigo will ever have the right to hold that power."

All the white beast did in response to the petite black haired girl's speech was simply stare at her, not making any other movements at all. They didn't break away from their locked gazes, each one's eyes bearing into the other's. Finally, the hollow closed his black eyes ad slowly shook his head, softly chuckling.

"**Ya wouldn't think like that if ya saw the condition King is in now. He couldn't even put up a good fight or any at the moment. Go ahead an' think otherwise if ya want, but just know that I told ya so later when yer hero doesn't show."**

Fire burned in the small woman's eyes at his words. Determination and anger radiated off of her in waves, "You're just too arrogant. I _know_ that Ichigo will pull through!"

"**Ah, whatever. I really don't feel like discussin' this with ya anymore. So let's get back ta business,"** the hollow stated smugly and began the action of bringing his deadly zanpakuto up to strike. But, before he was able to even halfway complete this motion, a very familiar voice cut through the air.

"Licht Regen!"

After this command, a volley of bright blue arrows flew towards the hollow, who was just starting to turn around to see who was there. The attack hit the nemesis from the side and he was thrown through a crumbling section of wall and out the other side.

A calm Ishida appeared soon after next to a gawking Rukia, staring open mouthed at the scene before her.

"Are you alright, Kuchiki-san?" the battle outfitted Quincy asked sincerely, never lowering his bow at the sight where the hollow crash-landed.

"Y-yeah…" Rukia answered uncertainly, "I think I'm fine?" she said the last part with a confused tone.

Chad ran through the rubble practically out of nowhere, both arms armored and ready. He stood next to Uryu, giving a nod of greeting to Rukia before redirecting his gaze towards the same spot as Ishida.

"Please stand back and let us handle this," Uryu said coolly, "Orihime is outside helping the others. It would be best to leave this to us given your current state."

Said Shinigami opened her mouth to protest, but wasn't able to get any words out before the hollow burst forth, standing threateningly in front of them all while laughing giddily. Uryu and Chad both visibly stiffened at seeing this demonic form of their close friend.

"**Well, ya got me!"** he childishly stated, **"I gotta say that I didn't expect that, so congrats to ya fer that! But now it looks like I got more toys ta play with now that ya two have showed up."**

"Get back, Kuchiki," Ishida said in a hard voice, steeling himself for the attack the beast would soon dish out, "_Now."_

She hesitated briefly before quickly heading out at a sprint.

"**Che, typical,"** the white demon said as he watched her leave.

"Don't even think about going after her. We're here to fight you," the calm Quincy boldly stated, drawing back his bow to emphasize his point.

Shrugging passively, the hollow then made a motion with his left hand that was normally associated with one basic meaning: _Bring it on._

Chad willingly obligated as he punched the air towards the demon, "El Directo!"

The energy blast soared towards the enemy who made no move to defend himself. As the attack neared, he narrowed his eyes behind the mask and simply flicked away the oncoming projectile with a snap of his wrist.

"**Really?"** he asked, disappointed. A second later, Ishida burst into existence next to the hollow, bow pulled back, and released a storm of arrows at point-blank range. Dust and an assortment of other things came up from the attack, momentarily blocking sight from the scene. When it all cleared, only the damage to the surrounding area could be seen; no hollow could be found.

"**Now **_**that's **_**more like it,"** the echoing voice said from Uryu's right, much too close for his liking. Whirling around on his heel, Ishida began to assault the monster once again relentlessly with Chad. Neither one let up at all in their seemingly endless barrage of attacks send at their once friend. They had to keep fighting, no matter what.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Carefully add exactly three drops of Sulfuractic, a light yellow colored liquid. Chop up two cubes of compressed Clitoria Ternatea. Finely shave one tablespoon of illuminated fluorescent Chlorophyllist, a plant that only grows deep in the caves of forested areas in Rukongai with a rare amount of sodium gluconite, a spiritual body healing molecule. Sprinkle in dried Iyashi leaves, essential in the aid of returning energy, acting like a stimulant. Poor two teaspoons of liquidized reishi with a high factor of healing capabilities **[1]**.

These were a few of the many steps that a certain blonde shop-owner was hurrying to complete, racing against the clock all the while. Who knew how much time he had left or how many people were being hurt or even killed because he was taking too long. But he couldn't distract himself by thinking such things. Right now, all his focus needed to be driven to the task at hand which was finishing this antidote that would help Ichigo deal with his hollow.

The small, pint sized beaker resting on the small Bunsen burner containing the – hopefully – life-saving concoction started to bubble dangerously. Urahara quickly came over to it and turned the heat down on the burner to keep the mixture at a lower temperature. If the antidote stayed boiled for too long, then it would not be effective in its purpose because the ingredients would be scorched and not be able to fulfill their roles later on. This whole process was both very taxing and temperamental. Just one factor out of place and too much or too little of one thing would ruin everything and it would have to be started over from the very beginning. Plus, it would most likely spontaneously combust in his face and that was not ideal.

Just a few more ingredients and steps left and it would finally be finished. But these last steps would be the most challenging. It consisted of two parts. The first was to add a _very _unstable element called Uraniamin, an element created in the Soul Society Research and Development department that derived from Uranium. He actually did quite a bit of work on creating this substance himself, hence how he got it and why he knew its properties so well. Its purpose was to give an immense boost of energy and also deliver highly concentrated reiatsu. Although it was greatly useful to the mixture, it was still extremely radioactive and therefor needed to be stabilized, which lead him to the second step.

This included taking the beaker and transporting it from the burner to a complicated contraption consisting of a transparent glass casing that locked at the top with metal bolts. Four tubes of the same material connected to this chamber on each side that led to a large steel box with a variety of wires, buttons, and lights of many different colors. This box would be the mechanism which would stabilize the Uraniamin by conducting electrical pulses heavily composed of neutrons, thus speeding up the process of decay by virtually over three-hundred percent. With this ratio, the stabilization of the element would be complete in mere seconds.

The only problem with this was that, once the machine finished its electrical charges, there would be no way to tell if the substance was truly neutral or if it was overcharged and would therefore be ineffective in completing its purpose. Either that or it could still be radioactive and cause dramatic effects to the subject it was administered to. He did not have any test subjects or the time to run a trial with the finished product either, which meant that he would have to trust his luck and pray to God for it to work correctly without any problems.

Taking a deep breath, Kisuke readied himself. Better get started then.

Opening up a small metal package wrapped and labeled in things such as nuclear warnings and hazard signs, Urahara took the contents that were inside with safety tongs and slowly approached the beaker that currently contained a green-colored liquid. No preparation needed to be done for the Uraniamin, so Urahara simply dropped the substance into the concoction and briefly observed how it immediately dissolved completely in the liquid, leaving no a trace of itself behind.

Right then, the mixture began to bubble and fizz uncharacteristically, making occasional hissing and popping noises. Now would be the appropriate time to put it in the machine to stabilize it.

Picking up the tongs again, Urahara grabbed the beaker and relocated it to inside the transparent box which would hopefully do its job. Securing the metal locks on the top and quickly switching the machine to an 'on' position, Kisuke watched behind darkened goggles that he hastily put on throughout all of this, and watched as the electrical pulses went to work.

At first, not much happened except for the whirling sound the machine began to make. But that slowly changed. Soon, bright flashes of energy were seen traveling through the tubes that eventually reached the main containers. The flashes turned into deadly looking beams of electricity, dark purple in color. They resembled miniature lightning bolts and attacked the beaker with ferocity. The charges became brighter with each passing second and, even with his protective goggles, Urahara still had to turn his head and shield his eyes from it.

A small ding was heard, similar to that of a kitchen timer going off. All the light faded and the room was left just as it was before. Taking a close look at the beaker, Kisuke made note of how it had changed in color from green to the same dark purple as the electrical charges. The mixture was also calm with no bubbles or fizzing present.

Did his machine work in stabilizing the antidote or no? That was his main concern. But, it was still impossible to tell by these results alone. Time to put it to the test and find out for sure.

He took a hold of the beaker after removing it from the container. A soft warmth could be felt even through the glass and his leather gloves, but that was probably from all the electricity coming into contact with the substance.

Slowly, ever so cautious of not spilling a single drop of the precious mixture, the blonde shop-owner poured the contents of the beaker into a prepared glass vial, the purple liquid did not even fill the vial up all the way and _all_ of it would be needed to be effective. So, they basically had one shot at it and hope they didn't miss.

He screwed on the top which also had a metal needle poking out of the middle of it, making it as tight as it would go.

Now, it was ready.

Running, not wasting any more time, the gleeful and somewhat panicked Urahara came to a certain dark-skinned woman, handing her the syringe carefully.

"All you need to do is administer it, _all_ of it, and the antidote should do the rest from there," he quickly explained.

Yoruichi simply nodded as she took the vial and disappeared via shunpo in the general direction that the hollow was.

Kisuke looked off in the distance she traveled towards, the sound of battle being able to reach his ears even from here.

"Please… hurry."

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**[1]: Just to clarify something here, I did not just make up these names off the top of my head. I actually gave some thought into each and every one of them to make them sound more believable and scientific in a sense. They also have meanings too such as how Clitoria Ternatea is an actual flower that helps in the medical field and Sulfuractic is from Sulfuric Acid. Just thought I should let you know that. :)**

**Omake: **Rukia slowly backed away from the frozen hollow, noticing how he didn't even make a move to stop her. She could use this moment to her advantage and stop this slaughter here once and for all. Or…

She reached into her robes and pulled out a black marker. Snickering, she started drawing on the hollow's mask, her marker squeaking while she did it. Just as she finished her work, which she was quite proud of, she stepped back to admire it. That was when the follow came back to the real world.

"**Hahaha, you thought that you could…"** the hollow started but then trailed off as he saw Rukia in front of him trying to hold in her giggles, **"Oi, what's so funny?"**

"Why don't you look for yourself!" she responded and pulled a small mirror that she had somehow managed to hide in her robes as well to show the hollow her masterpiece.

He just stared at first with his eyes twitching every now and then.

"**Wha… What the **_**hell? !"**_he screamed as he got a look at his mask. It was covered in stupid and poorly drawn _things_. Some included Chappy the rabbit, a curly mustache, and writing that said 'You suck!' on his forehead. He chucked the mirror back at the girl who was now laughing uncontrollably, clutching her stomach.

**A/N: Yeah, I couldn't resist writing that X)**

**Okay, not nearly as long as my last chapter, but I'd say that it's pretty good for having little to no inspiration and partial writer's block for close to a month. How did that last part with Urahara working on the antidote sound? I wasn't too confident on it myself, but I would just like to know how you readers felt about it. **

**Just a little heads up real fast. I did write a short one-shot for one of my own original ideas that I do plan on turning into a full book when I get better at writing. I wrote it 'cause I couldn't really think of what to write for this story. Hehe… yeah. Here's the link for it on Deviantart, just take out the spaces like usual: : / / shirohichi891 . deviantart #/ d535q3w And one more thing, before I update this story again, even though it only has maybe two chapters left, I'm going to be doing a short one-shot for GGCharms 'cause her birthday was last Monday and she needs a present for being the awesome person that she is! I love ya girl! ^w^**

**Thanks for reading and please review! *slowly backs away with a stack of videogames in hand***


	23. The Fight For Control

**A/N: Hey there fellahs! I hope you had a good fourth and enjoyed all the fireworks! I know I did. Well, here's another chapter for you lovely people! ;D**

**Disclaimer: Even if it was my final wish to own Bleach when I died, I still wouldn't. :/**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Everything was just too quiet. _Much _too quiet for a place that had basically become a battle field. The cause for such a state could be seen across the charred and destroyed landscape.

A large, dark-skinned male lay face up in a pile of rubble. His shirt had been completely destroyed and pants were torn up with holes in several locations. The right arm of this man – or what used to be where an appendage of such variety was previously located – had been torn off at the elbow with long claw marks traveling upwards from that spot. The left arm, in barely any better shape, was burned to the point where the skin was black and blistering. Sections of the flesh were eroded so much that bleach-white bone peaked through. The last thing off about this man was that he had acquired a hole in the center of his forehead around the size of a fifty-cent piece driven directly though his head out the back.

Chad was dead.

Another figure that laid on this field littered of the dead or injured was a formally white clad, navy haired young man. His clothes were dirtied by both dirt and blood, soaking through the fabric and staining it the crimson color. He as well laid face up, although he was on more of an incline than the other less fortunate one. His head was high enough to see across most of the destruction, if he had his eyes open that is. His hands rested on his abdomen where one of his very own Seele Schneider embedded itself, pinning him to the ground below.

Ishida, although severely wounded, was luckily still alive, but just barely. His breaths were laborious and beads of sweat ran down his face. Overall, he was still not in the best shape obviously.

The person, or more correctly the monster that performed all these vicious acts against these youths was closer than one would think given the silence of the area. He stood near a crumbling and half broken wall. Before him was the beat-up figure of Rukia Kuchiki, pinned up against the bricks making up the structure. Many cuts and bruises littered her body, but nothing nearly as serious as the two boys described earlier. A clawed, deathly pale hand placed on her neck kept the girl in place. The owner of said hand had his masked head bowed low to the ground.

"**Now,"** the demonic hollow said, raising his head to look his next victim directly in the eye, **"Since that basically takes care of all yer little friends, **_**maybe**_** we won't have any more distractions. That'd be nice now, don't ya think so?"**

He stared intently into Rukia's eyes, trying to see what her emotions and thoughts were at the moment. On the outside, she appeared calm and collected despite the situation, not showing any signs of fear. But, on the inside, she was in a complete panic. All she could think about was how she was going to die, no way around it. She even lost her beloved zanpakuto somewhere out on the battle field during all the confusion, dropping it when attacked from behind or something along those lines. She could not help but be purely afraid at her situation and the thing staring seeming straight into her soul.

And he could see that fear too.

Yeah, she was going to die.

The hollow increased his grip on Rukia's pale, thin neck, lifting her off the ground a couple of inches in the process.

"**I can **_**finally**_** enjoy this!"**he snickered, **"Ya have **_**no**_** idea how long I've waited ta do this. All that time spent in King's borin' mind was basically spend just **_**waitin' **_**fer this moment."**

Since Rukia was deprived the ability to speak clearly, she asked a question with her eyes, _'Why?'_

"**Why? Because, with ya out of the picture, there will be nothin' able ta bring me back. But, ya don't get it, do ya?" **he asked, chuckling darkly before continuing, "**Ya, my little princess, are King's hope. Ya gave him everythin' he ever wanted; power. An' because of that, yer basically his 'light' or somethin' stupid like that. Anyways, with ya out of the picture, I can finally be truly free."**

He raised his empty hand, having left his sword on the ground once he got a hold of her, and posed it to strike, **"Any last words before I kill ya?"**

Rukia was getting frantic now, her breaths coming quicker by the second and her heart beating faster than ever in her life. But just as she was about to completely give up again, she saw something out in the distance.

A literal flash of orange and dark purple came into her peripheral vision. Only one person had that color combination in her memory and that was the one and only Yoruichi. She must have been wearing some sort of reiatsu suppressor because Rukia could not sense her presence at all, which would explain why the hollow had not taken note of her being there.

Again, the flash that was Yoruichi appeared, closer this time. She stayed in that spot and motioned to Rukia towards an object in her hand, then to the creature holding her up.

It clicked then to Rukia. Yoruichi needed her to distract the hollow so that she could get close and do whatever she needed to during that time. She just had to figure out what to do to distract the demon now and quickly…

"**Well?"** the hollow's voice broke her out of her thoughts and her attention snapped back towards him, remembering his previous question. Her eyes widened ever so slightly as she had an idea come to her.

"J-just… one th-thing," she gasped out, still having difficulty breathing at this point, "Please… l-let m… me s-see his… face j-just one… m-more time."

"**That I can comply ta,"** the hollow said in a slight snicker. Bringing his hand that was formally posed to strike up to the edge of his mask, he lifted it to the side like he had it earlier. Again, the pale and too similar face of Ichigo appeared to the light of day and Rukia had to suppress a shudder at simply looking at him.

"**Now then-"** he started, but was abruptly stopped when the practically suffocating girl in front of him reached out both arms with speed he did not think she was capable of and grabbed his head in a firm grip. Since he was caught completely off guard by the sudden movement, he did not react fast enough to evade.

With his head still held in the petite Shinigami's hands, she pulled it towards her own with strength coming from thin air. He was yanked forwards and something happened that he was expecting even less.

Her lips connected and locked with his own.

The hollow's eyes widened dramatically at this turn of events. Now _this_ was a whole new experience for him. What was it that this girl was doing? He had never seen anything like it before. Even in King's memory there was nothing of him preforming this act. And why was she closing her eyes?

They stayed like this, frozen in lips embrace with each other for a span of multiple seconds, neither making any move. Rukia was beginning to run out of air and would need to intake precious oxygen soon if she wanted to stay conscious. But she had to keep the kiss going so that Yoruichi could do what she needed.

Wait… was that what this really was? A… kiss? Was she really kissing the hollow that took over Ichigo's body? If that was so, then she was essentially kissing Ichigo in a way… That would complicate things a bit.

The hollow finally decided to pull back from pure shock of the moment, his face twisted into a form of utter confusion. His grip on Rukia's neck had long ago been released, his hand now at his side with the other. He stood completely still, not moving a single muscle and simply staring ahead at the exhausted girl in front of him. Then, he felt something poke at him in the side of his stomach.

He looked down towards the source of the sensation and his eyes met with the ones of a dark-skinned woman. This person's hands were on some sort of glass container with a liquid inside it that was slowly disappearing.

The woman, also known as Yoruichi, looked up and smirked triumphantly up at the beast that she injected the antidote into. Said monster was only able to continue gazing at her with a confused expression before he finally found his voice when she pulled a long needle out of his side.

"**What did ya…"** he questioned, but lost his speaking capabilities when he stated feeling… odd. Every part of his body began to get heavy and he could not move right even if he wanted to. His vision flickered, objects going in and out of focus sporadically until everything went completely black. Lastly, the sensation of being pulled backwards came onto him. That was when all his senses left and he was thrust back into the inner world that he worked so hard to get out of.

Yoruichi and Rukia watched the hollow's feet stumble around for a few seconds as he tried to gain some form of balance, not succeeding very much in the process. One of his hands was grasping at where the needle was inserted. He started to stammer insensible gibberish in the beginning too. Eventually, his eyelids closed partially and his body fell backwards in an unceremonial heap.

They had finally managed to down the beast which had caused so much destruction.

Yoruichi heaved a huge sigh of relief at the outcome. Rukia on the other hand looked like she wanted to run over to the hollow's side, even though she was about to pass out from all she had gone through in the past few hours.

She slowly sank down to her knees and, with Yoruichi's assistance, was able to lean back on the broken wall. Heaving heavy breaths in an attempt to calm herself down, Rukia closed her eyes trying to concentrate on just that and not the prone form in front of her.

Uneven footsteps could be heard off to both of their sides, slowly approaching. Turning to face the source, they laid eyes upon the slightly injured form of Orihime who had a scratched and gashed right leg. As quick as she could, she made her way over to the pair on the ground. Without saying a word the familiar orange shield came into being around Rukia. She did not complain, silently accepting the relief.

"I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry I couldn't help," the gray-eyed girl forced out, "If I just could've helped in any way, then maybe some of this could've been avoided," tears were now sparkling in her silver orbs.

Yoruichi put a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder, telling her without words that it was all okay.

Rukia, now able to stay awake and conscious without as much effort, locked her gaze upon the still and virtually lifeless body in front of them. She was looking for any sign of change, whether good or bad, whatever was good for her at this moment.

Now it was all up to Ichigo though. His life and probably everyone else's in this whole town and more was depending on his success. All he had to do was pull through…

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Orchard orbs opened up and gazed into dark clouds and heavy raindrops. His whole body was soaked, practically to the bone making all his movements feel sluggish and weighted down. He sat up slowly and held his head in his hands. The memories of recently were as fresh as they possibly could be with the clearest being the one of his dying mother.

Defeated. That's what he felt like. Completely and truly defeated with nothing left to fight for.

A spark of energy flooded through is system, one that came unexpectedly. He jolted straight, back arching instantly while his eyes opened wider than normal. As fast as it came, it left.

What was that? That feeling was foreign and out of nowhere. The orange-headed protagonist thought it over briefly before it occurred once more, having more power and force than before.

This sensation was not one of pain. Quite the opposite actually. As this newer spark kept its momentum and basically energized the teen, he realized this. Whatever was happening to him right then and there was giving him power he was unfamiliar with, but unable to turn away. It was as if someone had connected a direct line on him that led to the electrical plant.

Along with this new power came a renewed will. A will to stand back up from the ground and fight back anything in his way that posed as a threat.

One thought that did run through his head was why and how he was feeling this way? He felt like he was being pushed or influenced by something not under his control. Like someone was pulling his strings or in his control center pushing his buttons like no tomorrow.

Okay… now he sounded a little too much like Orihime.

A loud crash erupted off in front of him. Dust and concrete scattered every which way, making it unclear as to what landed and where that thing was now. A white and slightly dirtied figure stumbled out of a crater looked disoriented and confused. The person caught the gaze of the teen's standing not too far off, and his own quickly hardened. A vicious snarl escaped his lips and the white double whipped his hand around to grab at something behind his back…

Only to find nothing there.

His eyes widened instantly and he looked back over to his twin and saw a new development take place. A blue aura was swirling around him looking more violent and powerful by the second. The same color and scene was held in his eyes, a hypnotizing vortex of endless potential.

One second that figure was standing before him by more than ten feet, then he was directly in front of him, face mere centimeters from the hollow's own. In the next moment, the orange-headed Shinigami infused with power coming from an unknown source brought his zanpakuto forward in a stab and skewered his hollow through the chest up to the hilt.

All of these events took place in the span of one second, far too fast for normal or even advanced Shinigami eyes to comprehend.

The pale, white version of Ichigo sputtered and coughed on the sword, spitting up clumps of blood onto said teen's face in the process, **"Well, ya got me… again,"** the monstrosity stated just as his body began to disintegrate from his feet up.

"**Just ta let ya know, this ain't the last yer gonna hear from me,"** he said and gave one final smirk accompanied by a lone laugh before he completely disappeared.

Once his hollow's existence vanished, Ichigo slumped to the glass window beneath, feeling drained of all the energy that unexplainably coursed through his veins. His hands shot out to support his body now, shaking from the effort. He suddenly felt sick, his stomach doing flips and mind bursting with pain. Finally, his limbs gave out on him and he was sent into the confines of nothingness for the umpteenth time that day.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Are you sure he's going to be alight? I mean, he's ben like for a while now," the kind, soft voice of Orihime asked, addressing the still, unmoving body of the hollow in front of her.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. Kisuke developed that antidote himself, so I'm completely certain that it _will_ work," Yoruichi sated with a strong and unwavering voice.

"But Kuro-… the hollow has been like that for over fifteen minutes now without signs or anything. Just when is Urahara-san's antidote supposed to work do you think?"

"I don't know, but hopefully soon."

"Oh…" the busty, young girl replied, head downcast.

During their whole conversation, Rukia was sitting there by them like she was frozen in the same position, simply staring almost without blinking at the figure on the ground. She bit her lip, hard, drawing blood that slid into her mouth and down her chin. Her patience was draining, as was her hope.

"Just please…" she whispered to herself so quietly, "Come back."

As if those words were the trigger, the hollow's white skin cracked in multiple places and eventually began to fall off in sections, exposing the tan skin beneath. All three girls present rushed over to Ichigo's side to witness his transformation from beast to man. All his physical characteristics came back just as they were before. Pale to normal skin, long hair shortening to ear-length, eyes fading into white and brown, and black claws returning to normal fingernails.

Finally, Ichigo was back in control.

Although, he could have been in better condition. For example, the huge hole in the center of his chest was still there exposed to the world and, at that moment, he was not breathing.

"Ichigo! Ichigo, wake up!" Rukia frantically screamed by his side, shaking his shoulders in an attempt to bring him back to life, "Orihime! Please, can you try to heal him?" she asked desperately.

"I-I can try," said girl brought her hands to her hairpins, uttering the incantation to summon her fairies. Upon arrival, they formed the orange shield and surrounded the unmoving body on the ground. Ichigo's form began to glow in the same color, but something was off, or at least different. Instead of just her own shield's glowing light, dark, pure black strands began to emit out around Ichigo. Theses strands combined with the orangeish-white one's from the shield above and wove together. The light then came down and made contact with the circular hole in the Shinigami's chest below and something miraculous happened.

The hole instantly closed up, leaving no trace that it was ever there to begin with.

It took just a second more for Ichigo to respond by taking a sudden, gasping breath in, chest rising in this action dramatically. More breaths quickly followed, rasping and hoarse in sound and appearing to be quite painful according to the scrunched up look Ichigo was displaying.

"Ichigo!" all three girls said as one, each extremely grateful to have the berry back. Rukia wrapped her arms around him, giving a hug to be remembered. Once she pulled back, she looked down to Ichigo's face and saw the look of gratitude on his face.

"I'm back," he stated simply, smiling sincerely before closing his eyes and falling into a restful sleep for once.

"Come on. Let's take him back to Kisuke's," Yoruichi said while picking Ichigo up in her arms.

"Yeah," Rukia said back, standing up with the dark-skinned woman and busty blonde, "Let's go."

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: And now we are left with one chapter more before the end. 'Tis a sad day indeed. Okay, I'm kinda uncertain about this chapter, so if you guys could tell me how it flowed and all that, then that'd be great! :D**

**Thanks for reading and please review if ya could! *holds tickets for the new Spider-Man movie which I saw the midnight premier of (freaks out a little from awesomeness)***


	24. The End Of The Beginning

**A/N: This is the FINAL CHAPTER ladies and gentlemen! So yes, that sadly means that there will be no more updates for "Simple Mistakes "anymore after this one. But fear not, for you still have this chapter, right? :D Okay, since I was once again pretty lazy about replying to reviews… again, I'm going to do it here again like I did before.**

**Therasia: **Thanks so much! And for the happy ending part, well, you'll just have to read this to find out if it qualifies enough for you to be considered that.

**Kit Kinya L. O. A. F. member: **Wasn't the movie jus the best EVAH! I seriously have four posters of him in my room now, no joke. Talk about obsessive. Hehe… ^^" Yes, I'm sorry that I killed Chad off, but I gotta say that he kinda annoys me at times so I just kinda got rid of him. Oh well! :D I'm very glad that the chapter seemed to flow nicely as well, 'cause I just had my doubts.

**IchigoMoonCutter:** I'm glad that you liked the last chapter and are so excited for Ichigo's return. But, I'm pretty sure that you're either going to be extremely pissed at me or happy for how it ends. ;D

**Virtue and Vice: **Hehehehe! Yes, the kiss scene just came to me one day and I just knew that it'd be perfect to put into the story line. *snickers* I swear that if you do watch the spider-man movie, you will not be disappointed! :D

**GGCharms: **Girl, I'm so glad you liked it! And, even though you already kinda know what's going to happen, I'm sure that you're going to enjoy this anyways! :D

**Horo-Emptiness: **Thanks so much for all of that! I'm glad that you liked Hichigo's (Ogihci's) reaction to the kiss too. As for the flow of the last chapter information I do agree with you on the points that you made. I thought that they seemed the same way and I'm considering revising them later on after this. Thanks for that too! I hope that you enjoy this last chapter then!

**Maekat:** Thanks so much for the review, hun! All of your questions will be answered (hopefully) in the contents of this chapter. Enjoy! :3

**Guest:** It's perfectly alright that you had a somewhat late review. I really don't mind at all, and I in fact appreciate the fact that you even chose to review in the first place, so that you for that! :D And as for why I killed off Chad, well… I just don't really like the guy personally so, yeah… ^^"

**Blacklight: **Hahahaha! Thanks so much for your inspiring review! It made me laugh which always makes me want to write more. You will find your wanted angst in the chapter below! :D

**And that sums that up, so all that's left to say is basically enjoy and that's for sticking with this story till the very end! I love you all! :'3**

**Disclaimer: Me no own The awesome Bleach!**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Staring into the light-brown colored liquid that swirled slowing in the green, glass cup, Rukia debated on whether or not she should take another sip or not. Her fingers tapped restlessly on the side of the container while mulling over this issue, unable to hold still for even a single moment. She observed how the contents of her cup lazily traveled in a counter-clockwise motion, steam slowly coming up and dispersing into the air. Finally, she decided on the matter and brought the tea up to her mouth with both hands supporting the sides so as not to spill any of the hot liquid onto herself or the floor. After taking three small mouthfuls of the substance, she set the container back down onto the round, wooden table again and began tapping her fingers once more.

'_How long is Urahara going to make me wait like this?'_ Rukia wondered to herself impatiently. All of her various wounds had already been attended to and bandaged, so she was simply waiting for the giddy shopkeeper to come and inform her on the conditions of all her friends. Ever since they had all returned to Kisuke's shot, Rukia had basically been confined to this small room so that she did not get in the way. It was understandable really since all the injured – and that meant _everyone_ who had been either hurt or even regrettably killed – had been transported to the quaint shop for medical attention. It had been a substantial amount of patients for only Urahara and Tessai, even if Orihime helped as well. She did have the unique and extremely useful talent of being able to bring people back from the dead in some cases.

Rukia inhaled deeply and forced that air back out in an impatient huff-like growl. She was tired of waiting for results. What was really weighing down on her mind though was how Ichigo was going to be. Nothing had been mentioned about the teen so far and it was really making the petite Shinigami anxious. Questions about the situation popped into her thoughts. Did Urahara's antidote truly work and was Ichigo in full control again? Or, did it just work for that short time and was his demonic hollow going to take control once more? Did that monster leave any lasting effects on him from the whole incident, and if he did what were they? But, the one question that was stronger and more important lead her thoughts.

How was Ichigo going to react to everything once he woke up?

There were so many possibilities and Rukia could not even keep track of them all. She was very worried about what Ichigo would do once he did regain consciousness. The scenes of what he would do played in her mind like some sort of horror movie, each scenario something worse than the last.

The grip on her teacup, now with both hands holding onto the sides, increased during this time; arms shaking slightly and eyes having a far-off look to them.

"Kuchiki-san!" Urahara's energetic voice broke her out of the demented thoughts that were plaguing her mind. Said shop-owner was already by her side, having entered the room without her even noticing. Once Urahara had gathered the girl's full attention, he cleared his throat dramatically.

"I am happy to say that we have, somehow, successfully stabilized everyone!" he said with a grin, "And it only too roughly three and a half hours!"

Rukia blanched at him. How could he have such a carefree attitude about the whole thing? Then again, if she looked closer at his appearance, the dark bags and tired eyes stood out more. He really had been working hard.

"How's Ichigo thought?" the black-haired woman asked, getting straight to the source of her worries, "Is he alright?"

"As a matter of fact, he is," Kisuke answered with a goofy grin that looked similar to Isshin's own, "I've done _a lot_ of tests, every one that I could think of, to determine if there are any lasting effects still present and all my data came up as negative, which is a very good result. You could actually go and visit him and any of the others, but most of them are resting at the moment so must keep that in mind."

She did not need to be told twice for in an instant Rukia was on her feet heading for the back rooms. Her legs carried her to the farthest room back, the one that Ichigo was in. she knew this fact because she had been there to help carry him in there before they basically kicked her out.

Right when she reached the room's door, Rukia hesitated, freezing to the spot. Was this the right thing to do? Should she really see the teen or just let him be?

She made her decision and steeled herself for any one of the possibilities that had been conjured up in her mind. The door slid open and the uncertain Shinigami made the first step to enter. And in she went.

The sight that greeted her was not what she expected to see.

All that was in the confines of the room was a simple mat in the center with an orange-headed figure lying on top covered in blankets of a tan color from the neck down. What Rukia noticed the most was the look on the inhabitants face. It was on of peace. The usual scowl that was normally always present was replaced by this new one of contentment. Rukia had never seen that on his face before, so she was just slightly shocked to see it there, especially after everything that had happened recently.

Rukia walked into the room and slowly sat down on the floor at the boy's right. She simply watched Ichigo breathe for minutes, watched as his chest rose and fell in rhythm. She really did not know what else she should do or say at the moment, so she just kept silent. That was disrupted by the moaning sound coming from the previously motionless body.

Ichigo scrunched up his face, eyebrows coming together causing wrinkles in his forehead. His eyes opened up about halfway and moved around lazily before resting upon the blurry figure beside him.

"Hey Ichigo," the person said, sounding very familiar and caring, "How are you feeling?"

By this point the waking teen was able to perceive who was speaking to him, identifying them as Rukia. He gave a small smile at this, "Hey there, Rukia."

Ichigo made to sit up and managed to do so with Rukia's assistance. But, once he did this, an unexpected wave of nausea overcame him. He doubled over himself, clutching his stomach and moaning.

"What's wrong?" Rukia asked urgently, worried severely.

"N-nothing. I'm fine," Ichigo said, not sounding convincing at all, "Just let me-" he tried to say, but was halted as another wave hit him that forced his hand to cover his mouth, "Yeah… I'm gonna hurl."

"Okay. Umm… Just wait here and try to hold it in. I'll go find a bucket or… something!" the panicked girl said, running out of the room frantically. She soon found - or more like nearly knocked over – Tessai and quickly informed him on the situation. He provided her with the needed container and she rushed back to the room, Tessai following behind to make sure everything was okay.

Ichigo looked almost literally green by the time she returned and did not even hesitate to empty his stomach's contents into the provided bucket. As he did this, a gasp sounded from Rukia and he wondered why this was. The reason was made clear once he looked at what he had thrown up.

Blood. A lot of blood. That was basically all that filled the bucket. Not only that, but chucks of flesh and bone were in the horrifying concoction as well. The most disturbing part of it was that _none_ of it was his own. And that scared him.

He scuffled backwards as best as he could in his state, trying to get away from the sight in front of him. This could not be happening. No, _how_ could it be happening? That was what he wanted to know.

"Wh-wha…" that was all he managed to force out, too horrified at what he saw to say anything else. He could not quite comprehend what was before him. That or he just did not want to.

At this moment, Tessai willingly removed the bucket out of the room.

"Ichigo… There's been a lot of stuff that's happened lately and, well…" Rukia attempted to explain, failing at not getting the right words out, "Well, you see, when your hollow took control of you, he basically acted as most hollows do. He went on a rampage and killed a lot of people."

It did not take long for the berry-head to connect the dots and figure out what had really happened, "You mean he… a-ate people? So, _I_ did all that?"

"What? No, no! You aren't responsible for any of this! Your hollow is. Why would you think that?" the petite woman questioned, not understanding where Ichigo's logic was coming from.

"Because, we are the same person basically," Ichigo started, not taking his eyes off the bucket's previous location even once, "We share the same body so whatever he does, I do too. _I'm_ the one who did all this… I _killed_ all those people… I'm just like him."

Rukia inhaled a deep, calming breath before kneeling beside the traumatized soul, "Ichigo, listen to me," she said assertively, placing both hands on his cheeks gently to get him to look her in the eyes, "You will _never_ be like that monster. Please understand that. This whole incident is not your fault. You must realize that you are not the same as he is and you are _so_ much better than him. And do you know why?"

She took a hand and laid it on the center of his chest.

"Because you have a heart. That's something that no hollow has and never will. That's what makes you so different from the other inside you. And trust me, it makes a whole lot of difference. So, are you just going to get up and redeem yourself, or are you going to stay here and mope like a scared child about what's already been done?"

Some part of Ichigo heard Rukia, heard what she was saying and agreed with her wholeheartedly. But, another part of him just could not get over what he seemed to know to be true. For some reason, even though he wanted to believe everything Rukia was saying, he simply just could not. His eyes showed it too.

The previously hopeful woman put her arms down and averted her gaze, "Fine, if you want to be like this than go ahead. But just know that I will not give up on you."

And with that, she got up and headed for the door. Once there, she looked back and saw Ichigo roll onto his side and curl up into himself.

"I'm just a monster."

She left at that moment. Once out the door, she passed by Urahara and Tessai who had finished moving the full bucket, but she barely noticed the both of them.

"That was some speech you gave there, Kuchiki-san," Kisuke said, gaining the girl's attention enough to make her stop walking, "I'm impressed. Too bad Kurosaki-san's so resistant to your efforts at the moment. Just give him time though, and I'm sure he'll come around," His efforts went in vain to help as Rukia just started walking back the way she came with her head downcasted.

"Well, it was worth a shot," the shopkeeper said while scratching the back of his head.

"Oi, was that Rukia that I heard just know?" a tired Renji questioned from his doorway. He had bandages wrapped around his entire torso with barely any skin was not covered by their surfaces.

"Why yes it was, freeloader-san! She just went out to the main room if you would like to talk with her."

"Alright, thanks. And stop calling me a freeloader!"

"Whatever you say, freeloader-san!" the blonde man hid his face behind his signature fan to hide his grin.

"I'm not going to get a break ever, am I?" the redhead questioned to himself as he walked with some effort down the hallway.

"Boss, what are we going to do about Kurosaki?" Tessai voiced.

Urahara sighed before he answered, "For now, let's just keep monitoring him to make sure that everything's going fine with his physical health. As for this mental health, I'd like to just let him mull it all over for a while before we confront him again."

"Very well."

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

He was dreaming.

There was not an exact reason why he thought this fact to be true, but he just felt that he knew for some odd reason. What he saw before him was a sight he had seen many times. It was his inner world, although the sky was clouded and looked to be on the brink of pouring rain.

He was apparently standing – or floating – on one of the many horizontal skyscrapers that filled this area. As he gazed around the scenery, he took notice of how his zanpakuto spirit was nowhere to be found. That was unusual. Most of the time, even if he was dreaming, the spirit was almost always present if it had something to do with this place.

Humming, a light and soft sound, reached his ears. Now that was most definitely a peculiar event indeed.

He looked around in search of the source of the noise, coming across nothing at all in the beginning. Until he turned around that is.

Once he checked behind himself, he saw a pale, nearly pure white figure that could only belong to one inhabitant of this world. His hollow. The monstrous creature who had been the death of so many innocent people.

As soon as he laid eyes upon the albino, two things happened. One, Ichigo's blood turned colder than ice for he was completely _terrified_ of this being and what he could do. And two, a deep and burning rage filled him, derived of the anger that he felt towards the hollow for hurting many of his friends and family. Two quite contradictory occurrences really, happening at the same time.

Some things seemed rather off about the hollow though. First was that he seemed too… relaxed. Even though he had essentially lost the fight between the two of them, he did not look like he had at all. He was positioned hear the building's ledge, leaning back with his hands out behind him to support his upper body. His sandal-clad feet were out in front of him with one straight and the other up more towards the cloudy sky. Plus, he was still currently humming some unknown tune in such a carefree attitude.

Second, he looked _far_ too happy. The look on the creature's face was content and satisfied, as if he did not mind how things had turned out in the least bit. Instead, he should have looked more resentful and angry, but he was just the opposite.

The third thing off about the situation was what came next. As he was looking at this scene, Ichigo witnessed how his hollow stopped humming and turned his head in a lazy manner to look in his general direction. It was like he was looking right at him, but how could that be? It was only just a dream, right?

Next, the hollow spoke four simple words that would ultimately change Ichigo's life forever.

"_**It's not over yet."**_

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**THE END.**

**X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

**A/N: Yep, that's it. That is the end of our little adventure now. Thanks go out to everyone who's took the time to read this and I would really appreciate if you would also read what I have to say below as well.**

*******IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!***** Okay, so I know that in this chapter there was a lot left unsaid and some holes as well. Also, there was that cliffhanger at the end too. Now you are all probably wondering why I did that. The answer to your questions is simple: **

**SEQUEL! **

**Yep, that's right! There's going to be a sequel to "Simple Mistakes" that I will be making as soon as I can get around to it. I already have a good amount of the plot and story line worked out too, so I know what I'm planning on doing with it once I do start. **

*****There will be a poll on my profile page so that you can vote on if you think this is a good idea or not*****

**BUT! Before I do start on the sequel to this story, I would like to tell you all of what I plan to do before that. I'm going to be finishing up my short-chapter story "Meetings Gone Wrong" that is only going to be about 5 or 6 chapters in total. Then, I'm going to edit this story so that I get rid of all the mistakes and go back to the beginning and completely redo it 'cause I have to admit, my first chapters SUCKED! **

**So that's what I'm gonna do. I hope that you have all enjoyed this and that you will continue to read my work in the future. Please leave a review for what you think about the chapter or anything else and have a wonderful day! :D**


End file.
